33 LG Bosses Removed and Replaced in Oyo State

The Heads of Local Government Administration have been directed by the Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi to take over the administration of their respective councils from the caretaker committee chairmen.

 

The directive was contained in a statement issued in Ibadan on Friday by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Dr Festus Adedayo, was sequel to the expiration of the tenure of the caretaker committee chairmen.

As it was recalled, the six-month tenure of the chairmen renewed by the state House of Assembly has expired on May 8.

 

The statement further disclosed that a list of new caretaker chairmen had been forwarded by the governor to the House of Assembly for ratification and approval.

 

The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adebayo Ojo, had in a recent statement attributed the delay in the conduct of local government election in the state to legal, rather than political considerations.

 

According to him, the legal constraints, which hindered the constitution of the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC), have made the conduct of the local government elections to be put in abeyance until a competent court of law pronounces on the matter.

 

“In 2007, former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala unconstitutionally sacked members and Chairman of OYSIEC appointed by his former boss, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja and replaced them with his own protégés.

 

“Chief Oyemomilara Okunola and others appointed by Senator Ladoja and who were sent packing by Akala thus filed an action at the High Court, Ibadan, Oyo State, to challenge their unlawful removal from office because the constitution guaranteed them a fixed term of five years from 2003 to 2008.

 

“Oyo State High Court, through Justice P.O. Ige (as he then was) and now of the Court of Appeal, gave judgment in favour of Senator Ladoja’s appointees and held that they were illegally and unconstitutionally sacked by Akala. The court declared their sack as null and void and ordered that all their entitlements up to 2008 be paid,” Adebayo explained.

 

He said that the chairman and members of OYSIEC imposed by Alao-Akala in office in 2007 also went to court in 2011 to challenge their removal from office by the current governor, Senator Ajimobi, as a follow-up to the judgment obtained by the Ladoja’s OYSIEC men.

 

The Attorney General said that the Oyo State High Court through Justice M.O. Bolaji-Yussuff, also awarded judgment in favour of this set of OYSIEC men too and ordered the state to pay them their entitlements.

 

“It is obvious that the state government is confronted with two sets of judgments from the High Court of the state, with each of the judgments validating the appointment of the claimants before each of the court and also with the earlier judgment declaring as nullity the appointment of the latter OYSIEC men of Chief Alao-Akala,” he said.