APC defends Ajimobi on LG POLL The All Progressive Congress (APC), Oyo State chapter defended the state government on its failure to hold local government election. Apparently reacting to Accord Party on why government had not hold local polls, APC said that ignorance of law, as well as lust for governmental impunity, was the major reason why the Accord Party in the state wanted the state government to by-pass the law and hold local government elections. The APC, in a statement issued by its interim Publicity Secretary, Hon. Dauda Kolawole, maintained that legal, rather than political consideration, was the reason why the state had not held the local government elections. According to him, the impunity that the Accord Party leader and former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja and his former deputy in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, inflicted on the electoral system of the state, was what had constituted legal constraints, which hinder the constitution of the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC), thereby making the conduct of 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 to challenge their unlawful removal from office because the constitution guaranteed them a fixed term of 5 years from 2003 to 2008. Oyo State High Court per Hon. Justice P.O.Ige (as he then was) and now of the Court of Appeal, gave judgment in favour of Ladojas appointees and held that they were illegally and unconstitutionally sacked by Akala. The court declared their sack null and void and ordered that all their entitlements up to 2008 be paid, the APC explained. The party said that the Chairman and members of OYSIEC imposed by Otunba 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 judgement obtained by Ladojas OYSIEC men. It said that the Oyo State High Court, through Hon. Justice M.O. Bolaji-Yussuff, also awarded judgement in favour of this set of OYSIEC men too and ordered the state to pay them their entitlements. Right now, it is obvious that the state government is confronted with two sets of judgements from the High Court of the state, with each of the judgements validating the appointment of the claimants before each of the court and also with the earlier judgement declaring as nullity the appointment of the latter OYSIEC men of Otunba Alao-Akala, he said. The APC said it will amount to contempt of court for the State government to urge the state House of Assembly to proceed with the screening and clearance of the Chairman and members of OYSIEC already forwarded to the House of Assembly by Governor Ajimobi, in view of the court judgments. He said that the state government therefore chose the path of honour and constitutionalism by subjecting the latter judgement to the Court of Appeal for determination, while the state also settled all the entitlements of the OYSIEC men of 2003 to 2008. The APC said that the appeal on the case was yet to be heard by the Court of Appeal,Ibadan, stating that it was not a government of impunity that the Ladoja government ran while he was the State Governor
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 19:45:42 +0000
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