Despite the claims by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation that it has directed all state governments to comply with the Supreme Court's judgment forbidding governors and legislatures from dissolving elected council officials, only Oyo State has acknowledged receipt of the memo.
Despite the claims by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation that it has directed all state governments to comply with the Supreme Court’s judgment forbidding governors and legislatures from dissolving elected council officials, only Oyo State has acknowledged receipt of the memo.
The issues came to light following a memo to the Oyo State Government in respect of the sacked local government officials by the PDP-led government in the state, and urging it to reinstate the chairpersons and councillors. Although the Appeal Court gave judgment in favour of the sacked council chairpersons, the Ekiti State Government challenged the decision of the Appeal Court and proceeded to the Supreme Court.
“The need to immediately disband all caretaker committees and restore democratically elected representatives to man the local governments has therefore become obligatory,” the letter partly read. The letter covered the action of the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, who a few hours after his inauguration as the governor of the state, sacked all the elected officials of the local governments in the state.
The governor had argued that the AGF could not have intervened in such a matter while it is still a subject of litigation. Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, Umar Gwandu, in response to PREMIUM TIMES inquiry, said the letters were addressed to the 36 states of the federation. When told that the states had denied receiving the letters, Mr Gwandu said, “I cannot confirm whether it has been received or not received, but I can tell you is that it has been sent.”However, some of the defaulting states are now under pressure to comply with the directive.
On April 3, 2017, he inaugurated caretaker committees for all the 18 local councils to run the affairs of the local governments pending the holding of elections into the councils. “We had scheduled our local government elections before that purported statement from the attorney-general,” Mr Ojogo said.
Asked why he termed Mr Malami’s letter as “purported statement,” Mr Ojogo said he did so because the letter was not sent to Ondo State. Kunle Somorin, the Chief Press Secretary the governor, told PREMIUM TIMES that the transition committees would be in place until the Ogun State Electoral Commission conducts elections to pick new council chairpersons.
He renewed their tenures in April, 2018 and a second time using the House of Assembly just before his reelection. “We came on board at the time when the economy was too hard and there was a paucity of funds, and there was no way we could hold elections for local governments when we could not even pay salaries at that time.
Mr Muhammad noted that he could not confirm whether a letter from the AGF had been received since a Commissioner for Justice had just been nominated and he would need to be screened by the legislature and confirmed before assuming duties. He said some parts of the state were inaccessible due to the security situation, and the state would conduct local council elections once the situation became conducive.
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