The Ondo State government has faulted the claim that it has violated a court order in the appointment of Adewale Fatunsi Richard as the Olusupare of Supare in Akoko Southwest Local Government Area of the state.

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr Kayode Ajulo SAN, said the appointment of Fatunsi was not in defiance of a subsisting court order as claimed by a contestant to the throne, Solomon Animasahun.

Animasahun, through his counsel, Chief Tolu Babaleye, said the approval of Olusupare violated the existing interlocutory court order given by the High Court that stopped any action on the disputed chieftaincy stool.

However, Ajulo said there was no subsisting interlocutory injunction restraining the government. He said the only order before the State government is the High Court’s ruling of 9 September 2024 granting an interim injunction pending the hearing of the Motion on Notice.

According to him, an interim injunction is, by its nature, fleeting—a temporary shield to preserve the status quo until the parties may be heard. He said an interlocutory injunction, granted only after hearing, endures while the cause remains.

Ajulo challenged the contestants to produce any order of a competent court that specifically restrains the Government from its statutory duty, if it exists.

He said: “Law does not live in narrative or speculation; it lives in the recorded command of the Court. Nor does the mere commencement of an action suspend the machinery of government.

“Lis pendens protects the subject-matter of litigation from frustration; it does not paralyse the State.

“Government exists to govern. Its powers continue until a court of competent jurisdiction expressly directs otherwise. To hold the contrary would invert the constitutional order, making every public function hostage to the mere filing of a writ.

“Government will obey every valid and subsisting order and the final judgment in Suit No. HKA/32/2024. It will neither abdicate the duties the law imposes nor defy any lawful command of the Court.

“For the rule of law is not the rule of assertion. It is the disciplined submission of power to truth as declared by the Court; no more, and no less.”

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