Members of the opposition parties in Ogun State under the aegis of the Inter-Party Advisory Council have threatened a showdown with the state government over its failure to commence the process of election ahead of the expiration of the tenure of incumbent chairmen on July 26.
The incumbent council chairmen and councillors were sworn in on July 26, 2021, after the All Progressives Congress won all the seats during the local government election that year.
The Supreme Court had granted financial autonomy to local government councils, declaring that it was unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated to the councils.
In the judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the seven-man panel held that the 774 local government councils should manage their funds themselves.
The court further declared that a state government had no power to appoint a caretaker committee and that a local government council was only recognisable with a democratically elected government.
“A democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable,’’ the apex court declared, putting an end to the practice of appointing caretaker committees to run the councils by the state governors.
In Ogun State, opposition party members criticised the state government for failing to implement measures to ensure a democratic transition, as required by law, three months before the current local government administrators’ terms expire.
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The state Chairman of IPAC, Abayomi Sanyaolu, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, vowed to resist any attempt by Governor Dapo Abiodun to cripple local government administration in the state by either extending the tenure of the incumbent chairmen or appointing caretaker committees to administer the affairs of local government councils.
Sanyaolu said, “As their (local government chairmen) tenure is ending by July 26, we are ready for a showdown with the governor, because he cannot appoint caretaker committees for the local governments, it is against the Supreme Court judgment, and he cannot extend the tenure of those democratically elected chairmen; they must vacate their posts July 26.
“Whichever way the governor wants to do it, we don’t want to know, and he cannot conduct an election within two months, he must give us three-month notice before the election. The Office of Local Government Administration will be the one to take over the affairs of the local government and we also do not want the state electoral commission to handle the election.
“The governor cannot continue to deprive local governments of their entitlements; this is why we are calling for total autonomy for local government administration in the country. The governor alone cannot see to the affairs of all the 23 wards of the 20 local government areas of the state.”
Also speaking to Saturday PUNCH, the state Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, Akinloye Bankole, said the party would not accept any attempt by the governor to undermine local government administration in the state.
“There is no need for any state and Ogun State, in particular, to begin to drive or initiate a process of conducting another local government election. Every sensible government should know that the recent judicial pronouncement of the Supreme Court is a law on its own.
“We are aware that the ruling APC government in Ogun State is largely illogical and such senselessness would be vehemently opposed as it constitutes flagrant disobedience to the Supreme Court decision.”
Meanwhile, the APC has expressed its readiness to contest and win the next local government election in the state.
The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Tunde Oladunjoye, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, said, “The Supreme Court judgment does not affect Ogun State, because the state has a democratically elected government.
“The Supreme Court indeed talked about democratically elected local government administration, but the court has not precluded the State Independent Electoral Commission from conducting elections into the local governments to the best of my understanding of that judgment.”
However, the chairman of the state electoral commission, Babatunde Osibodu, has said the state would soon commence the process of the local government election.