The Oyo State Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) has urged the state government to continue to maintain the status quo on the dissolution of local government administration until otherwise decided by the Court of Appeal.
The advice was given by the ALGON Chairman, Prince Abass Aleshinloye, on Wednesday while reacting to the high court judgment on the suit between the group and the state government.
ALGON had gone to court to challenge the dissolution of the elected local government administration by the government.
In a judgment given on May 6, 2019, the Oyo State High Court had affirmed the three-year tenure of the elected local government chairmen and councilors and nullified the Sections of the State Local Government Laws, which empowers the governor and the State House of Assembly to dissolve local government administration.
The state government has, however, appealed the judgment.
The ALGON chairman advised the state government to await the outcome of its appeal before taking any illegal action.
“We urge His Excellency to be patient for the outcome of his appeal at the Court of Appeal because to do otherwise, on the misconceived and misinterpreted purported stay of execution will amount to an assault on our judiciary, which is also capable of rendering the said appeal pending at the Court of Appeal nugatory,” Aleshinloye said.
In the same vein, ALGON has challenged the state government and urged the court to restrain it (the government) from setting up an ad hoc committee to probe the finances of the local government.
ALGON had described the action as running contrary to the extant judgment of the court, which affirmed the tenure of elected local government chairmen and councilors.
It described the action as a breach of the constitution, ultra vires, and an illegal act altogether.
Governor Seyi Makinde had set up a seven-man committee on July 1 to look into the councils’ accounts from January 2018 to May 29, 2019. The committee is chaired by retired Justice S.L. Popoola.
At the hearing of the suit on Monday, Justice A. F. Adeeyo had granted leave to the plaintiffs (ALGON) for an order of judicial review to prohibit and quash the proceedings and decisions of the Justice Popoola- led Committee.
The court further directed that the order granting leave shall operate as a stay of further proceedings before the said committee until the determination of the suit now filed. “By this order, the said committee is restrained from any further sitting pending the determination of the new suit,” the court said.
