The Oyo State chapter of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) has denied the rumour that its members have been paid off by Governor Seyi Makinde to surrender their mandate.
The Association advised Makinde to obey the rule of law, insisting that their mandate is not negotiable and not for sale.
The Chairman of Oyo State ALGON, Ayodeji Abass Alesinloye in an exclusive interview with Nigeria Standard on Friday, accused Makinde of trying to cause a crisis in the State and warned him to desist from setting the State on fire through his “stubbornness”.
Alesinloye described the rumour that they have been paid off by Makinde, as not only total falsehood but also laughable.
He added that Makinde’s action was nothing but an act of “illegality” which should not be allowed to stand.
Alesinloye said, “The rumour making the rounds that Governor Seyi Makinde has paid us off is laughable. Honestly, that is not true, we will not collect money from anybody.”
“Nobody is fighting because of money, but we are fighting because we have a mandate, we have a responsibility to the people at the grassroots and of course we have to discharge these responsibilities. That is what we are fighting for, we are fighting for our mandate, it is not about any money.”
“It is a pity that some people cannot see beyond what we are doing. It is not for us, by next year we will quit but for the generation coming, if there is any governor wants to do any illegality in the future, he will think twice. I can assure you that nobody is collecting any money from anybody.”
“If there is any negotiation or any discussion, the very first thing that is not negotiable is the mandate.”
Alesinloye said it was unfortunate and regrettable that a Governor elected by the people could sack Local Government officials also elected by the people.
“It is unfortunate that he (Makinde) actually escalated the crisis and that they are arresting our people but of course we have done the needful and we have been reporting all the incidents.”
“It is even highly disappointing and very regrettable that we got to this stage, we never wanted a situation like this. And of course, all the blame should be put at the doorstep of the Governor himself because never before at least for over eight years, we have never had a crisis like this in Oyo State. If he had governed by the rule of law, such a crisis would not have happened,” Alesinloye said.
“I will advise the Governor to respect the rule of law. He should allow the rule of law to guide him. In a democratic setting, the rule of law should be upheld at all time. He is there because of the fact that the judiciary came to his aid, the judiciary declared him the winner of the election, he got a judgement from the judiciary so why will he select the judgement that he wants to respect. Respect the rule of law, respect court judgement, respect the people too, never be a governor to a political party, he should be a governor to the entire citizens of Oyo State.”
“My advice to the people is to allow peace to reign in Oyo State and in Nigeria at large. Some of our people are so ignorant that they are saying that the governor doesn’t want to work with us, he doesn’t have to work with us.”
“If tomorrow President Mohammadu Buhari wakes up and say that man (Makinde) is PDP, I can’t want to work with me, people like us will stand up and fight for Seyi Makinde, it is not about where you belong to, it is about the rule of law, it is about democracy, you must have respect for the rule of law”, the ALGON chairman said.
