Osun Judiciary in Turm0il As JSC Secretary Alleges Punitive Transfer To Teaching Hospital
Osun Judiciary in Turmoil As JSC Secretary Alleges Punitive Transfer To Teaching Hospital
The Osun State Judiciary is on the brink of a fresh crisis following the controversial removal of the Secretary of the Judicial Service Commission, Abosede Fagbola, a lawyer, and her replacement with a non-lawyer.
The crisis reached a boiling point last Monday when Fagbola was allegedly locked out of her office.
At the centre of the controversy is the alleged violation of a gazetted law of the state which provides that the Secretary of the JSC, who is the accounting officer of the Commission, must be a career lawyer in the service of the Osun State Government.
Sources within the Commission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Punch that trouble started after Fagbola, acting on the directive of the state Chief Judge, Justice Adepele Ojo, who chairs the JSC, transferred the Assistant Director of Administration and Supplies, Isiaka Alao, to the Customary Court of Appeal.
Fagbola had in a letter dated September 14, 2026, with reference number JSC/OS/TRD/2026/001, and obtained by The Punch, notified Alao of his transfer to the Osun State Customary Court of Appeal.
But barely four days later, in a dramatic twist, a memo from the Office of the Head of Service, dated September 18, 2026, with reference number SMD.3/Vol.VI/135, and signed by O. Omishakin on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Public Service Office, ordered Fagbola’s transfer to the UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital and directed Alao to take over as acting Secretary of the JSC.
Fagbola, in a petition to the Vice-Chairman of the Commission, who is the President of the Customary Court of Appeal, described her transfer as punitive and demanded its reversal, alleging that Alao had refused to comply with his own transfer.
“To my profound surprise, barely four days after the said directive was communicated, I received the Public Service Office circular… titled ‘DEPLOYMENT OF OFFICER’,” Fagbola wrote in her petition.
“The sequence and circumstances of these developments have caused me considerable concern. In particular, the fact that my deployment occurred shortly after I implemented the directive concerning the transfer of the said officer, followed by the designation of the same officer to act as secretary of the commission, has created a situation which I respectfully believe warrants the attention and intervention of Your Lordship.”
The development has raised serious legal questions, as the gazetted law titled Retirement Age Law on the Office of CR of Osun State High Court of Justice, CR Customary Court of Appeal, signed by the Clerk of the House, Simeon Amusan, and the Speaker, Adewale Egbedun, explicitly states that the JSC Secretary must be a lawyer.
However, the Chairman of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, Osun State chapter, Idris Adeniran, has attempted to downplay the controversy.
Adeniran argued that while the gazetted law extending retirement age to 65 mentions that the JSC Secretary must be a legal practitioner, it is not the Establishment Law of the Commission.
According to him, the position was historically occupied by non-lawyers including Mr Akanmu, Mr Oyedeji, Mr S. O. Oni, and Mrs Olayinka Ibiyemi Oderinde, before lawyers began to occupy it during the tenure of the late Chief Judge, Justice Ojo.
“However, to the best of my knowledge, the Establishment Law of the Commission does not expressly provide that the position must be occupied by a legal practitioner,” Adeniran said, adding that career officers deserved a fair opportunity to rise to the top.
