Opposition parties in Ogun State, under the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), have threatened to confront the state government over its failure to initiate the election process for local government councils ahead of the expiration of the current administrators’ tenure on July 26.
The incumbent council chairmen and councillors were sworn in on July 26, 2021, after the All Progressives Congress (APC) won all the seats in the local government election.
The Supreme Court has granted financial autonomy to local government councils, declaring that it is unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated to the councils.
The court also declared that a state government has no power to appoint a caretaker committee and that a local government council can only be recognized with a democratically elected government.
Opposition party members criticized the state government for failing to implement measures to ensure a democratic transition, as required by law, three months before the current local government administrators’ terms expire.
“As their (local government chairmen) tenure is ending by July 26, we are ready for a showdown with the governor, because he cannot appoint caretaker committees for the local governments, it is against the Supreme Court judgment, and he cannot extend the tenure of those democratically elected chairmen; they must vacate their posts July 26,” said IPAC Chairman Abayomi Sanyaolu.
He emphasized that the governor cannot conduct an election within two months and must give a three-month notice before the election. “Whichever way the governor wants to do it, we don’t want to know, and he cannot conduct an election within two months, he must give us three-month notice before the election.”
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) also stated that it would not accept any attempt by the governor to undermine local government administration in the state. “There is no need for any state and Ogun State, in particular, to begin to drive or initiate a process of conducting another local government election. Every sensible government should know that the recent judicial pronouncement of the Supreme Court is a law on its own,” said the party’s Publicity Secretary, Akinloye Bankole.
Meanwhile, the APC expressed its readiness to contest and win the next local government election in the state. “The Supreme Court judgment does not affect Ogun State, because the state has a democratically elected government. The Supreme Court indeed talked about democratically elected local government administration, but the court has not precluded the State Independent Electoral Commission from conducting elections into the local governments to the best of my understanding of that judgment,” said the party’s Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye.
The state electoral commission chairman, Babatunde Osibodu, has assured that the state will soon commence the process of the local government election.
