A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Olu Daramola has noted that Oyo State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde flouted the precedent of the Supreme Court for dismissing democratically elected local government chairmen.
The Senior Advocate while reacting to the decision by Seyi Makinde to sack LG chairmen in Oyo state, said under the 1999 Constitution, governors “lacks power to sack democratically elected local government chairmen,” noting that they had a tenure that “is guaranteed under the law.”
Daramola, who is of the Afe Babalola Chambers, in a phone conversation with ThisDay, therefore said the decision of the state governor to dismiss the council chairmen “is an illegality that should not stand.
Daramola said there “is a judgment of the Supreme Court, which has made it clear a democratically elected council chairman cannot be sacked by the governor. Anything to the contrary is nothing, but null and void.”
On what the sacked chairmen should do, he enjoined to go to court to fight what he described as injustice, maintaining that they would triumph.
According to him, the governor has no power to sack any elected council chairman and this has been made clear by a judgment of the Supreme Court. The sacked chairmen should go to court and I know that they would win.
In a similar situation, the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) also asked all the affected council chairmen to approach a court of competent jurisdiction to reverse the decision of the state government, describing it as a violation of judicial precedent.
