JUSTICE OGUNTADE, AREGBESOLA TASK JUDGES TO BE COURAGEOUS

IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – A former Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice George Oguntade, Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola have called on judges to remain courageous and fearless in the discharge of their duty.

“The likes of Late Justice Kayode Eso, JSC, whom we are celebrating today may not have achieved as much today if lawyers who practised and appeared before him then did not challenge his intellect by issues formulated and adjudicated before him”, they said.

They spoke at the public presentation of the book entitled, “Justice Kayode Eso: Beacon of Judicial Activism” in Lagos.
They described the late Justice Eso as a courageous and fearless jurist whose life was dedicated to the rule of law.

According to Aregbesola, Justice Eso was a quintessential legal intellectual who brought much erudition and elevated language to the service of law without losing the greater objective of justice.

The governor who was represented by his deputy, Prof. Titilayo Laoye Tomori, also noted that Justice Eso “belonged to the rarest breed of legal minds whose life and times was dedicated to law as the instrument in service of justice for the rich and poor, the weak and strong”.

Governor Aregbesola noted that the late jurist did not just pass through the land but left giant legal landmarks and shot into national prominence when he successfully defended black miners in tin mines of Jos who protested against colonial authorities.

He listed some of Eso’s landmark judgements that stood him out amongst his peers to include the trial of Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka who he discharged and acquitted of charges of bringing gun into television studio of Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation.

He also mentioned his dissenting judgement on the 1979 presidential election petition between late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and former President Shehu Shagari.

He recalled, ” his position then was that two thirds of 19 states ought to be 13 states and not 12 2/3 states since a state is a whole entity and indivisible in a mathematical sense”.

He said the late jurist traversed the boundaries of law and language as elevated art and was a delight of linguists and literature scholars for reasons of his unique ability to paint pictures of law with language.

The chairman of the occasion, Justice George Oguntade, also a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, recalled that the eminent jurist constantly demonstrated that the essence of judicial function is to develope and strengthen the law and its resultant effect while on the bench.




Oguntade said that Justice Eso achieved this ‘by intelligibly applying provisions of the law to scenarios not fully envisaged by drafters of the law and arriving at what many soon after referred to as locus classicus”.

He said judgements of late Justice Kayode Eso were helpful to him in his career on the judicial bench noting that he was an upright and courageous judge who fearlessly defended the truth.

Prof. Popoola in a review described late Justice Eso as a crusader for human dignity and rule of law and also praised him for “his exception brilliance of the law”.