The Osun Civil Societies Coalition and Democratic Socialist Movement have expressed disagreement over the propriety or otherwise of the call by Justice Folahanmi Oloyede on the House of Assembly to impeach Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

The two groups expressed divergent views in separate statements made available to our correspondent in Osogbo on Tuesday.

While the OCSC in a statement signed by its Chairman, Waheed Lawal, Secretary, Adebayo Bello and Director of Publicity, Ismail Uthman said it had petitioned the National Judicial Council and asked the body to investigate the judge, the DSM said Oloyede had done nothing wrong and she should be commended for her courage.

The Osun State Coordinator of the DSM, Mr. Alfred Adegoke and secretary, Mr. Kola Ibrahim in their statement said the judge’s petition just stated what was already known to the people of the state.

The OCSC stated that the judge had brought the judiciary into ridicule by dabbling into partisan politics while stating that her allegations against the governor were unfounded.

The letter partly read, “It behoves us to say that the words and language in the petition are unbecoming, maladroit and ungainly for the high standard of conduct expected of any judicial officer in this country.

“The magnitude of impropriety, of the form, dimension and concealed message of the petition violates every ethical standard devoted to the status of a judicial officer.

“If appropriate action was not meted on her (Justice Folahanmi) a floodgate will be opened and every willing and available Judicial Officer would soon become an instrument of use for the purpose of partisan politics.”

The OCSC noted that the words employed by the judge were meant to incite members of the public against Aregbesola.

The group added that the judge’s action would open a floodgate of misuse of position by some judges, if Oloyede was not sanctioned by the NJC.

“In as much as we are not in support of corruption, we call on the Osun lawmakers to be fair and transparent in investigating the petition and we demand that appropriate action should be taken on Governor Aregbesola if he commits impeachable offence as alleged,” the statement added.

The DSM also alleged that the Aregbesola administration plunged the state into the current financial crisis because of reckless spending by the governor.

Adegoke said, ” We in the DSM salute the courage of the judge and welcome her decision to lend her voice in support of the immediate alleviation of the preventable plight of workers and pensioners in Osun State. We do not buy the bogey of some people that, as a judge, she does not have Democratic right to air her views about issues that affect her family, relations and the state at large, even if she has knowledge of misdeed by government officials.

“We beleive she had every democratic right to air her views on going-on in the society. The allegations raised by the said judge are not new but open secret in the state.”