The former chairmen of Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas in Oyo State sacked by Governor Seyi Makinde, have said that the governor only paid N1 billion out of N7.056 billion accrued to them.
Consequently, the governor said only the 33 chairmen recognised by the law will be paid, while the sacked chairmen argued that the 68 of them went to court and the Supreme Court did not exclude any one of them from payment.
Recall that insideoyo.com had earlier reported that the state government said that the sum accrued to the chairmen is N4,874,889,425.60 and recently authorised the payment of N1 billion to them.
Reacting to the development on Thursday, the sacked council chairmen, in a statement by the immediate past ALGON Chairman in the state and Chairman, Forum 68, Prince Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye, said they were surprised by the state government’s claim that the money accrued to them is N4,874,889,425.60 after its (state government’s) representatives agreed with their lawyer that the total judgement payment is N7.056 billion.
The statement read: “We, the former democratically elected Local Government Chairmen in Oyo State, wish to acknowledge the payment of One Billion Naira (N1 bn) by Oyo State Government, the Judgement Debtors in Suit No. SC/CV/556/ 2020.
“The part payment of One billion Naira by Gov. Seyi Makinde led Oyo State Government, is sequel to the Supreme Court Judgment delivered on 7th May,2021, which inter alia, ordered that Gov. Makinde should pay all salaries and allowances of all the elected Chairmen and Councilors of the 33 Local Government Councils and 35 Local Government Development Areas, who were parties/appellants to the suit.
“After series of rigmarole, deliberate delay of payment by Oyo State Government, the representatives of elected Chairmen and Councilors under the auspices of ALGON and our brilliant and resilient lawyers, eventually met with the representatives of Oyo State Government. At the end, it was unanimously agreed after careful calculations that the total judgment payment is N7.056 billion after deductions of PAYE.
“So, we are surprised that in the public statement issued by Oyo State Government, the general public was misinformed that it had paid One Billion Naira out of a total sum of Four Billion, Eight Hundred and Seventy Four Million, Eight Hundred and Eight Nine Thousand, Four Hundred and Sixty Five Naira, Sixty Kobo (N4,874,889,465.60).
“As usual, the Government lied again with the statement and figures quoted as the total judgment sum due to us.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we reiterate that the total judgment payment as jointly calculated and agreed with the state government is Seven Billion, Fifty Six Million Naira Only (N7. 056 billion).
“Our team of lawyers are already taking appropriate steps to call the attention of the Oyo State Government to the “error” which we considered as a deliberate ploy to mislead the good people of Oyo State.
“We also reiterate that the One Billion Naira paid by the Oyo State Government is just about 14% of the amount Supreme Court directed the Oyo State Government to pay us and we consider this to be a flagrant disobedience of the order of the Supreme Court as the court did not at anytime order that the judgment sum be paid in installments.
“A meeting of all structures of the former ALGON will be called very soon to discuss and review next steps.”
The chairmen vowed to “pursue the struggle to its final logical conclusion until the total implementation of the Supreme Court judgment.”
