By Jamiu Bamidele
The sunshine state is presently in constitutional freefall. In the "Sunshine State," the light of the law has been extinguished.
As of January 2026, the total
paralysis of the Ondo State Judiciary —precipitated by the indefinite strike of the Coalition of Magistrates, Presidents of Grade 'A' Customary Courts, and JUSUN — is no longer a mere labour
dispute.
It is an act of institutional vandalism by the Executive branch. By starving the third arm
of government of its constitutionally mandated financial autonomy, the state government has effectively declared war on its own citizens.
The perpetrators of this "war" are an unholy trinity: 1. The emperor - Lucky Aiyedatiwa – the Chief Security Officer of the
state whose lavish spending on personal interests and indifference to the suffering of the people is reminiscent of Queen Marie Antoinette’s excesses and lack of empathy.
2. The Attorney General – Kayode Ajulo SAN, - The General executing his principal’s
campaign of strangling the judicial arm of the state. He brings to bear his formidable
skills at distorting information, placating stakeholders with falsehoods and
prevaricating, when demands are discussed.
3. Mrs. Omowumi Isaac -Commissioner for Finance: the tip of the Spear. Used by the
Executive to dodge responsibilities, rescind approvals, delay files, alter established
disbursement protocols and creating an illusion of penury by the executive.
This judicial capture has the human cost. Their actions have directly led to the shuttering of courtrooms across all 18 Local Government Areas, which is a violent assault on the fundamental rights of the people of Ondo bringing to fore the following:
There is the Gulag Effect: Hundreds of citizens now languish in overcrowded police cells and correctional facilities in Akure and beyond, denied the right to arraignment or bail. This is not "due process"; it is state-sanctioned incarceration where the innocent are buried alive in a system that has ceased to breathe.
Vulnerability of the Oppressed: Survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)
and victims of domestic abuse are left defenceless.
Without the shield of a sitting
magistrate to issue protection orders, the state has effectively abandoned its most
vulnerable to their abusers.
Also, it portends economic sabotage and financial ruin.
The Aiyedatiwa-led administration's refusal to honour the judiciary's financial independence is a direct strike at the heart of the state’s economy.
- Commercial Paralysis: Contractual enforcement has vanished. Land and customary law conflicts, Real estate transactions, probate matters, and debt recoveries are frozen, creating a climate of high-risk uncertainty that repels investment and invite chaoImpoverishing the Bar: Thousands of legal practitioners, who depend on active litigation to feed their families, have seen their livelihoods evaporate overnight.
This is a manufactured poverty, forced upon the keepers of the law by executive intransigence.
There is also the hypocrisy of power. Some aggrieved judicial staff have rightfully labelled the current leadership as "ungrateful beneficiaries of the judiciary".
While the Executive enjoys the fruits of judicial precedents that secured their own political survival, they now preside over the systematic humiliation of that same institution, reducing magistrates to commuting via commercial motorcycles (okada) or in public transportation alongside the very populace they are mandated to adjudicate, a reality that diminishes their professional esteem and eviscerates the indispensable sanctity of their judicial roles.
The road to anarchy; a state without a functional court is not a democracy; it is a lawless land where might makes right.
The Executive boot on the neck of the Ondo State judiciary is a clear and present danger to the social contract. Every day the court gates remain padlocked is another day the rule of law is replaced by the rule of the mob.
The Aiyedatiwa led Ondo State government must immediately implement full financial autonomy — not as a concession, but as a non-negotiable constitutional duty — before the last vestiges of public trust are permanently incinerated. The court is not a political bargaining chip; it is a prerequisite for the survival of Ondo State.
Whom the gods want to destroy, they first make mad. If one is thrusted to a lofty heights, he should *realise it is not by his power or might, he must not play God.
The governor's alleged squandering of state resources on unachievable personal ambition of a third term, and on his immediate political class to the neglect of several established government institutions is nothing short of crime against humanity and God.
