The Acting Chief Judge of Ondo State has
been caught in an age falsification scandal,
causing quite a stir in the state.
According to an investigation by
SaharaReporters, it has been revealed that
Acting Chief Judge of the Ondo State High
Court, Justice Temitayo Olubusola Adefunke
Osoba, falsified her age in official
documents to enable her to remain in
service.
As the most senior judge in the state, Justice
Osoba took over in acting capacity after the
immediate past Chief Judge, Justice
Olasehinde Kumuyi, ended his tenure. On
Monday January 23, 2017, former Governor
Olusegun Mimiko swore in Justice Osoba as
the “Acting Chief Judge” of Ondo State. The
ceremony took place at the Cocoa
Conference Hall in Akure, the state capital.
As Acting Chief Judge, Justice Osoba on
Friday, February 24, 2017 administered the
oath office on Governor Rotimi Akeredolu at
the Ondo State Sports Complex.
Justice Osoba, who had been awaiting
formal recommendations from the National
Judicial Council (NJC) in order to become the
substantive Chief Judge, apparently falsified
her age, according to the scrutiny of her
records.
SaharaReporers investigation revealed that
Justice Osoba was ultimately sworn in even
though Justice Folashade Taiwo Aguda, the
pioneer President of the Ondo State
Customary Court of Appeal and a close
associate of Mr. Mimiko, had been interested
in the position. Prior to her elevation, Justice
Osoba, who attended schools in Lagos,
Ondo and Ekiti states, never headed any
division within the state judiciary.
In her curriculum vitae (CV), read at her
swearing-in, Justice Osoba claimed that she
was born on the 20th of June 1957, which
purportedly put her age at 60 years old.
But an independent investigation by
SaharaReporters on Justice Osoba’s
academic records revealed that she was
actually born on June 20, 1950 not 1957.
The investigative team determined that the
judge is due to clock 67 years old on June
20, 2017.
If Justice Osoba had declared her true age,
she would have been disqualified from the
office she currently holds. Section 291 (1&2)
of Nigeria’s 1999 Nigeria Constitution (as
amended) states: “A judicial officer
appointed to the Supreme Court or the Court
of Appeal may retire when he attains the
age of sixty-five years and he shall cease to
hold office when he attains the age of
seventy years. A judicial officer appointed to
any other court other than those specified
in subsection (1) of this section may retire
when he attains the age of sixty years and
he shall cease to hold office when he attains
the age of sixty-five years.”
Justice Osoba’s records show that she was
born into the family of Reverend Timothy
Omotayo Olufosoye and Mrs. Joan Olaneye
Olufosoye in Ondo, Ondo West Local
Government Area of Ondo state. According
to a listing on Wikipedia, Reverend
Olufosoye was the first archbishop and
primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican
Communion) and was consecrated as the
first African bishop of Gambia and the Rio
Pongas in 1965. In 1971, Reverend
Olufosoye was transferred to Ibadan, the
current capital of Oyo State.
Investigation revealed that, between 1963
and 1967, Justice Temitayo Osoba attended
Bishop Philips Primary School in Ondo town,
which was founded in 1952. However,
when our undercover reporter visited the
school, located on Surulere Road in Ondo
town, he found that the name of Justice
Osoba, who used to be known as Temitayo
Olubusola Adefunke Olufosoye, was not
listed on the list of students registered
between the years she presented in her
falsified CV.
SaharaReporters investigators also
discovered that Justice Osoba attended
Fiwasaye Girls Grammar School in Akure, but
she chose to omit the school from her
academic record in an apparent effort to
conceal her real age.
Some of the judge’s academic record, which
is being shielded from public view by the
current principal of Fiwasaye Girls Grammar
School Akure, Mrs. Olubukola Taiwo Bola,
confirmed that the embattled Acting Chief
Judge understated her age in order to place
herself under the statutory retirement age
of 65 years old for judges.
SaharaReporters undercover reporter visited
the girls’ school twice in the course of his
investigation. However, he was rebuffed by
the school principal, who happens to be
married to Justice Ademola Bola of the Ondo
State High Court number 6 in Akure.
The reporter also visited Christ (Girls) School
in Ado Ekiti, where Justice Temitayo Osoba
claimed she attained secondary education
from 1972 to 1974, according to her CV
