Oyo LG Crisis: ALGON accuses Makinde of planning to swear-in Caretaker Committee

The Oyo State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has accused the Oyo State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde of planning to “illegally swear-in of the Chairmen of the Local government Caretaker Committee, despite judgments from different courts.

The ALGON Chairman of Oyo State, Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye in a statement on Monday, advised Makinde to desist from his continuous disobedience of the judgement of the Supreme Court and other Courts.

Abass-Aleshinloye insisted that this was the time to swear-in a “kangaroo illegal caretaker Members/Secretaries at the various local government at this period of pandemic when Coronavirus that is ravaging the world, and when the Governor himself closed mosques churches and schools directing no gathering should exceed 10 persons.”

The statement reads in part, “It has come to our attention at ALGON Oyo State that the Governor is not relenting in his serial disobedience to both the judgment of the Supreme court, and the extant substantive judgment of the Oyo state high court restraining all the actions of disband of elected council leadership, forbidding the appointment of caretakers over Local councils, striking down as unconstitutional any consequential act therefrom and injunctions restraining the Governor and the Oyo state government from embarking on these threatened acts.”

“It is very regrettable that this Governor, despite these judgments, in spite of repeated warnings from ALGON, distinguished senior lawyers, a reprimand and strong advisory letter from the AGF for disobeying the Supreme court, Governor Makinde continues with his trademark reckless disobedience.”

“We are informed arrangements are now concluded for his swearing in of caretaker committee members and Secretaries across our local councils. In these financially hard times when citizens are barely able to feed, and no palliatives forthcoming from the state government despite the huge donations received into the Oyo state COVID-19 fund in  billions, Governor Makinde continues to balloon the state recurrent expenditure with a total of another 500 plus political appointees into caretaker committees of local governments.”

“Our isolation centers have no ventilators, and life is hard for the ordinary citizen,yet it is at this time Governor Makinde is creating illegal local government work for his PDP acolytes. Let no one be surprised if our dear state is unable to pay April and future salaries in view of its misplaced spending priorities, ballooning our payrolls with political appointments in defiance of court judgments.”

“This is hardly the time for swearing in of  kangaroo illegal caretaker Members/Secretaries  at  the  various local government at this period of pandemic when Corona virus is ravaging the world, and when the Governor himself closed mosques churches and schools directing no gathering should exceed 10 persons. In what gathering are these 500 plus persons appointees be sworn in?”

“We once again request the Governor to reverse himself on his illegal activities on the Local Government administration in the state and restore it because he has nothing to lose but more benefits to gain in making his efforts better felt at the local government tier,  the real centre of people’s power and development.”

“The people at the grassroots are really suffering without any intimate shoulder to rest on for succor in this trying period of flood disasters, COVID-19, groaning poverty, increasing insecurity in our State, and mass unemployment , since the Local Government councils were illegally dissolved.”

“Citizens at the grassroots expect more at this crucial period. As expected, the government efforts is needed to provide more succour in the area of palliatives to virtually everybody, especially the most vulnerable that have been affected by the partial lock down of the State.”

“The State Government has no excuse for not making provision for essential relief items to the citizens of Oyo State now that the Federal Government has been magnanimous enough to reduce the price of premium motor spirit, and offered federal palliatives to our state. It is advised that rather than embarking on another journey of illegality and insensitive fund allocations, Governor Seyi Makinde should try to be sensitive to our people’s needs by concentrating the government’s efforts on how to contain further spread of COVID-19 beyond reasonable doubt and keeping the populace safe”, the statement concluded.