Suspended Ogun LG/LCDA chairmen, councillors threaten court actions against Dapo Abiodun

The 57 suspended Local Government and Local Council Development Area Chairmen, their Councillors and their appointees in Ogun State have threatened to drag Gov. Dapo Abiodun to court if he fails to lift what they termed "illegal suspension" placed on them. 

The LG/LCDA political functionaries, in a statement signed by their counsel, M. O. Ubani, asked Abiodun to also pay all their entitlements and damages of N500m for violating their rights as elected political office holders. 

The full statement:

PRESS BRIEFING ON THE ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL SUSPENSION OF THE 20 LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND 37 LOCAL COUNCIL DEVELOPMENT AREA CHAIRMEN, COUNCILORS & OTHER POLITICAL FUNCTIONARIES IN OGUN STATE

BACKGROUND

➢ The Local Government Chairmen, Chairmen of the Local Council Development Area (LCDA) and the Councilors were all duly elected on the 8th day of October, 2016 during the Local Government (LG) and Local Council Development Area (LCDA) elections that was held throughout Ogun State.

➢ The said elections were conducted by Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC), and Certificates of return were thereafter given to the said LG/LCDA Chairmen and Councilors.

➢ The elected Chairmen were thereafter all duly sworn into office on the 10th day of October, 2016 by the former Governor of Ogun State, His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun FCA, CON for a three year term. The said three years will expire on the 10th day of October, 2019.

➢ To our greatest shock and disappointment, the tenure of the LG & LCDA political functionaries was suspended by the 8th House of Assembly, Ogun State under the leadership of RT. Hon. Suraj Adekunbi by a Resolution of the Assembly on the 31st day of May, 2019. The said Assembly only had 1 week more in office as at the date of suspending the LG & LCDA political functionaries.

➢ RT. Hon. Suraj Adekunbi and his Assembly men had prior to the suspension of the political functionaries on grounds of Gross Misconduct and Misappropriation of Public Funds carried out two oversight functions in 2017 and 2018. Please NOTE that all the LG & LCDA were cleared by the 8th Assembly.

➢ Please NOTE ALSO that at no point in time was any Chairman or any of the political functionaries invited to face any disciplinary committee of the State House of Assembly or the Full members of the House of Assembly before the Resolution of Suspension was passed.

➢ As at date, no formal document stating the basis for the weighty allegations of Gross Misconduct and Misappropriation of Public Funds has been given to the Chairmen or any of the political functionaries. We are convinced that this is so because the State Government under the leadership of H.E Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun mfr, the former Speaker of the 8th House of Assembly RT. Hon. Suraj Adekunmbi and the current Speaker RT. Hon. Taiwo Adekunle Oluomo know that such allegations cannot stand the test of time against the political functionaries.

➢ ALSO the purported suspension of the LG & LCDA political functionaries via the Resolution of the 8th House of Assembly was only reported on social media, print media and radio. Can a man be charged for allegations/offences that have not been properly brought to his notice? NO and this is grave abuse of power. We should also bring to the notice of the good people of Ogun State that we had advised our clients: the Chairmen and other political functionaries to return to office after noting that no proper document was served on them stating that they had been suspended, we were disappointed to note and be informed that their offices had been put under lock and key on the directive of the State Government. Some of the offices were in fact taken over by political thugs loyal to the Government of H.E Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun.

➢ Nigerians particularly the good people of Ogun State should note that the suspension of all the political functionaries was preceded by the freezing of all LG & LCDA Bank accounts by a memo dated 30th May, 2019, originating from the office of the Permanent Secretary for local Government Commission acting on the directive of the Ogun State Governor, His Excellency, Prince (Dr) Dapo Abiodun MFR, all LG and LCDA accounts were frozen. The accounts as at date are currently been operated at the LG & LCDA by designated career officers on the directive of the governor without following due diligence and process. What do we mean by not following due diligence and process? The Chairmen are supposed to sign off on SCHEDULES (confirmation documents) before cheques of LG/LCDA can be presented and honored by the Banks. Effective 31st of May, 2019 none of the Chairmen have signed any schedules and yet withdrawals have been made from the LG & LCDA accounts. This is clear fraud.

➢ The good people of Ogun State both indigenes and residents also need to know that the Governor of the State, H.E Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun has continually allowed the illegal suspension to continue to see the light of the day. He has clearly encouraged this by not expressly disassociating himself from the actions of the 8th House of Assembly but has rather kept mum till date. The Governor’s style is to micromanage the LG & LCDAs from his office and this he has been doing since been sworn in, documents available to us can confirm this.

➢ The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees the Right to Fair hearing for every Nigerian, the Ogun State LG & LCDA Chairmen and all the political functionaries have been denied this right and no law abiding State Governor or Assembly should encourage such against any of her indigenes or residents not to talk of their other elected public office holders who enjoy the mandates of the good people of Ogun State. Or is H.E Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun, Rt. Hon. Suraj Adekunmbi Ishola and RT. Hon. Taiwo Olakunle Oluomo saying these people were not elected? Why would they not be heard before suspending them by a Resolution of the Assembly? Why would the Assembly call them for a meeting after passing a suspension resolution? Our clients were so matured to have honored your delayed invitation on 7th of June, 2019 and despite that they have been left unattended to. Why???, You came up with claims that you had 113 petitions against the LG & LCDA political functionaries and after several weeks no one has been informed about the details of the petitions. Definitely these are all just been put together so as to witch hunt the political office holders who didn’t support the ambition of H.E Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun at the last gubernatorial election.

➢ We are aware that the affected political functionaries have tried to resolve this impasse via political means so as not to blow up the polity in Ogun State, they have met with national leaders and elder state men and despite this, the Governor has decided to support acts which are unconstitutional. We are confident that our clients will have their day in the law court.

➢ The good people of Ogun State also need to know that in the last 33months of being Local Government and Local Council Development Area chairmen these set of Chairmen had no official cars and they had to run the business of the LG/LCDAs with their personal cars and were also responsible for the fueling of the cars from their salaries.

➢ They were not paid their furniture allowances, whereas other political functionaries at the state level have since been paid including the past state Assembly men and only got the sum of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) as security votes for 10 months out of 33 months they have spent in office. Despite all the hardships and ignorance why would anyone imagine that the appropriate thing to do was to suspend the mandates freely given by the people of Ogun State.

➢ Their salaries and other allowances have been suspended since the resolution from the House of Assembly.

OUR TAKE

The decision to freeze the LG/LCDA bank account and their suspension before the expiration of their tenure, based on purported petitions which they were not given opportunity to respond to is a gross violation of their Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to fair hearing, and hence cannot stand.  

Even if fair hearing was given to them before the decision to suspend them was reached, no law gives power to either to the State Governor or State House of Assembly to suspend, terminate or abridge the tenure of duly elected Council Executives, having been duly elected by their Constituents and Certificated by Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission. Any such act amount to reckless abuse of Executive/Legislative power which must be checked in order to protect our nascent democracy. 

In the recent case of Ekiti State v…….. where similar action was taken, the Supreme Court held that any law which empowers a Governor to dissolve Local Government Councils whose tenure was yet to expire violates Section 7(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from which the State House of Assembly derives the power to enact the Local Government law, hence any such action is unconstitutional and must not be condoned.

Furthermore, the issue of State Governors taking over the Constitutional responsibilities of Local Governments and denying them adequate funding to enable them operate effectively at the grass root level is an ugly development that has recently prompted the Nigerian Financial intelligence Unit (NFIU) to issue new regulations with respect to State/Local Government joint account. These regulations are aimed at protecting the Local Government fund and avoiding incidences like the ones suffered by the Ogun State LG Chairmen in the past 33 months as stated above.

On the backdrop of the foregoing, and in the spirit of amicable and peaceful resolution of this matter, we had written to the Executive Governor of Ogun State, which letter was copied to the Vice President. We also wrote to the Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, demanding the following:

1. That the unconstitutional and unlawful suspension of The Chairmen be reversed with immediate effect, to enable them complete their tenure which is to expire on the 10th day of October, 2019.

2. That all their entitlements for the past 33 months which they have been denied as stated above be computed and paid to them with effect from the 10th day of October, 2016 when they were duly sworn into office as LG and LCDA Chairmen till the 10th day of October, 2019 when they are expected to leave office.

3. The Sum of N500,000,000.00 (Five hundred Million Naira) as damages for the infringement on their fundamental right as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended and the hardship they have suffered as a result of willful deprivation of their entitlements as Council Executives.

We also drew the attention of the Director, Nigerian Financial intelligence Unit (NFIU), to this development. Having received no response from neither the Executive Governor nor the Speaker, our next line of action will be to seek legal redress in a competent Court of Law.

Signed:

M. O. UBANI ESQ.