In this interview with WALE OYEWALE, the Chairman of the embattled Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in Oyo State, Ayodeji Aleshinloye, insists that their elections as council chairmen remain valid, stressing that Governor Seyi Makinde should respect the rule of law
There are intense controversies around the issue of local government administration in the state, what must be done to put an end to the crisis?
It is unfortunate that we have this kind of situation in Oyo State. It ought not to have been. But of course, this is democracy where the sanctity of rule of law must be kept. What we know is that if you have any problem in any situation, you go to court. There are three arms of government and the judiciary is there to intervene whenever there is crisis. In any case, it is unfortunate that less than two hours after the governor was sworn in and he promised to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he went against it by announcing the dissolution of democratically elected chairmen in Oyo State. He came, he didn’t even call us to a meeting, just like in a military era, he announced the dissolution. Even in military coup, they would explain reasons for the coup. But in this case, there was no reason whatsoever. We said we had a judgement during the time of the former governor when he said that he was not happy with the outcome. Some of our chairmen had crises with him, we went to court and got that judgement that says no governor, house of assembly or any of its agents should sack the chairmen. We called his attention to it but he said he didn’t want to know. He said if we disagreed we should go to court. But no, we have judgement in our favour. If you are dissatisfied you go to court. You don’t just do anything your own way. For God sake, this is Nigeria. Buhari did not influence the decision of the court in Zamfara State where judgement was made in favour of the PDP in the governorship election because he has respect for the rule of law. Why would Makinde’s own be different? He is coming up as new governor on the ticket of the PDP, if Buhari should say because you are from PDP I sack you, how would he feel? What we are saying is that impunity is gone with the past. It should not be allowed again; not even when we have a judgement in our favour. After we educated them, they went to Appeal Court and they are still trying to make caretaker arrangement. That is what is causing the tension.
Did local government chairmen (ALGON) have any occasion to meet Makinde over your grievances?
No, we were never given such opportunity.
Did you meet him personally or had a telephone dialogue?
No. If you know how protocol plays out, there is no way I can. He is our boss; he can call on us to come. Even when the President of ALGON came from Lagos, they promised to see him but they didn’t allow him to see them. Till today, there is nowhere ALGON is in crisis. They have already returned the chairmen in Ekiti, Kwara and Ogun states. Why will Oyo State be different? There was no state where they did not call them to a meeting, but I am telling you that this governor did not call us to a meeting; not for once. If you say that you don’t recognise us as chairmen, you still don’t recognise us as citizens of Oyo State? And you promised to be father to all. I believe that he should be a statesman. He has forgotten that the era of campaign is gone.
But this is not the first time when a newly elected governor in the state would dissolve councils’ administration
Apart from our own judgement, there is a landmark judgement that bars all state governors from the impunity of dissolving councils’ administration. Governor Abiola Ajimobi came; he met caretaker arrangement on the ground. We are relying on the Supreme Court judgement that says all governors and state houses of assembly are barred from removing democratically elected local government council officials. They had one month left in office at the time. Ajimobi left them. Ajimobi wanted to conduct election into the council immediately but there was a court proceeding going on then. During our time, we waited until a court injunction was vacated before election was conducted. What I am telling you in essence is that it is no more fashionable. The NFIU guideline says that no caretaker committee should spend the money of the local government. Whoever does that would be put to prison.
What must be done to ease this tension?
Governor Seyi Makinde should respect court judgement. He just got victory at Supreme Court few days ago and people were singing. We congratulate him. The same Supreme Court that he could not obey was the one that affirmed his election. He appealed the judgement that we got in Oyo State and that appeal still subsists. By that appeal, the status quo remains. I think he needs to play it softly. For us, so far, we have been respecting the law. There is nothing that we do without involving security agents. We have been giving them letters and judgements.
You went to the council secretariat few days ago to resume duty; did you make a success of that?
It was a success. Before now, there used to be what I call ‘pankere politics’ where they use NURTW members to foment trouble but now, we put them on notice. With a judgement in our hands, nobody will fold their arms. The governor said he had the people’s mandate and we say likewise, we had the people’s mandate. We would not go to the extent of saying that the state will boil. We are peaceful people. It was very successful; we had to make a point by going there. We knew that they would not allow those people to welcome us; the second day, the Commissioner of Police gave us warnings. The CP said on Friday that he knows ALGON but that he didn’t know those who went to disrupt activities in the councils.
What should we expect from your members in view of this?
We thank the CP for warning us. But ab-initio, we never fomented trouble. But we would be very happy if he uses the same wisdom to tell those who want to occupy our offices illegally; we want to see whether he would allow Governor Makinde to be the first governor in the federation to appoint caretaker members in breach of the judgement.
