Senator Olufemi Lanlehin (Solan), has felicitated the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Oyo State Chapter, over the Supreme Court judgement of Friday, 7 May, 2021, which ruled in the association’s favour.
It is to be recalled that upon being sacked by Governor Seyi Makinde, on his inauguration, the association of elected local government chairmen and councillors, had headed to the courts to contest the development, culminating in the Supreme Court’s decision which vindicated the association. The Supreme Court not only frowned at the dissolution of the elected local government officials, it also lampooned the Oyo State Government for the crass illegality, fining the governor a sum of N20 Million, while also ordering the payment of all salaries and allowances to the dissolved council officials, on or before 7 August, 2021.
Lanlehin, who congratulated the Prince Ayodeji Abass Alesinloye-led ALGON, over the victory, saluted their resoluteness, tenacity and unwavering belief in constitutionalism, in the face of the Oyo State Government’s stone-age approach to matters which demanded civility, and coy attempt to pay ALGON off, while the meat of the matter hadn’t been dealt with.
“I must indeed salute ALGON, for standing firm in the defence of what’s right, to the shame of this current lawless Oyo State Government, whose sole belief is in the rightness of might,” Lanlehin said.
Lanlehin, former Oyo South Senator and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), while berating the Makinde government for always acting hastily, without recourse to deep thinking and rigour, wondered that: “if Governor Makinde had consulted widely, he would’ve learnt the futility of dissolving an elected government, and saved the state the hefty compensation he will now have to pay ALGON, the fine he will pay the court, and the filtering of the state’s commonwealth, in the guise of salaries and allowances he paid his handpicked caretaker chairmen, who in the first place, shouldn’t have even been in office, as no vacuum existed in the face of the law.”
Senator Lanlehin (Solan), then congratulated legal luminary, Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN for his diligent prosecution of the case, and for recording huge success at the end, while also admitting that he wished personally, that the Supreme Court returned ALGON members to office to serve out their tenure, so as to serve as deterrent to power-drunk state governments who take joy in the usurpation of the third tier of government. Nonetheless, he maintained that judgements like this, strong as it is, would still pass a strong message, on the need for total respect for the rule of law, as against strong-arm tactics most state governments, the Oyo State Government inclusive, are reputed for, in dealings with the local government as a tier of government.
