Oyo Sets to Reinstate Sacked LG Chairmen in Compliance with AGF’s Order
POLITICS DIGEST – Former Local Government chairmen sacked by Oyo state Governor, Seyi Makinde are set to return to office in compliance with a directive of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
To avoid any confrontation and breakdown of law and order, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Titilola-Zodo, had on Friday after a meeting directed its members to stay out of their various duty posts as from today.
Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, Oyo State chapter, Hon. Abass Alesinloye, on Sunday declared that his colleagues had been given the mandate of security protection following the order to resume office.
Alesinloye in a release yesterday said he allayed the fears or any unnecessary anxiety of NULGE, Oyo State, “and that all local government workers and the good people of Oyo State as the democratically elected chairmen and councilors of local government and council areas should return peacefully to their duty posts to perform our constitutional duties to the grass roots in obedience to the electoral mandate of the people of Oyo state.”
Alesinloye went on: “This is legitimate after the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, has again called the attention of Oyo State Government and the Inspector General of Police to the subsisting Supreme Court judgment reinforcing Section 7 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and pronounced as illegal and unconstitutional the dissolution of elected local council administration by state governors or state assemblies in Nigeria with no court order to back it up.
“Indeed, there could not have been any court order in view of the extant locus classicus decision of the Supreme Court in Gov Ekiti State V Olubunmo which settled the issues with finality.
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“The Supreme Court is a court with national jurisdiction, which also reinforced the Oyo State High Court’s earlier issued perpetual injunction against the Oyo state government forbidding dissolution of elected local government administration.
“As a peace loving organisation of responsible people and local government administrators, ALGON has taken the path of law to reclaim our mandate freely given by our people at the grassroots before achieving the well-deserved victory after long drawn legal and political battles to defend democracy and the rule of law.”
Meanwhile, the state government yesterday declared that it would insist on full observance of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) regarding the ongoing controversy surrounding the dissolution of the 68 illegal local council chairmen in the state.
Beside, it warned individuals threatening to derail the peace of the state to desist from such ruinous path or face the full wrath of the law.
The government, in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, maintained that the government’s position became imperative following threats of violence by the sacked illegal chairmen and the stay-at-home order issued to all local government workers in the state by the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE).
The statement reads: “The attention of the Government of Oyo State has been drawn to a sit-at-home order announced by the State Chapter of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE).
“The Government understands that the sit-at-home order was a response to persistent threats emanating from the sacked chairmen of local councils and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).
“Whereas the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde will not begrudge NULGE for seeking to preserve its members from a perceived Armageddon as promised by the sacked council chairmen, the Government would like to put it on record that it will continue to stand by the dictates of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.”
