Heed Court Judgment Against Dissolution Of LG Councils, Bolaji Abdullahi Charges Kwara Govt

Former Minister of Youth Development and Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has urged the Kwara State Government to jettison its plan to appeal the judgment of the High Court in Ilorin on the issue of Local Government Caretaker Committees.

The charge was upon plans by the state administration to appeal the judgment of a State High Court which upheld the application brought by the state-based civil society group, Elite Network for Sustainable Development, ENETSUD, against the state government. The court had upheld the group’s claim that the government was wrong to have sacked the democratically elected officials of the state local governments and replaced them with appointed officials of their own.

 Delivering judgment in favour of the plaintiff, the Court had described the government’s action as “executive rascality.” The state government, speaking through the state Attorney General, had however promptly responded to the judgment, declaring it as a mere “reasoning of the court” and promising that the state government was ready to file an appeal.

However, in his reaction to the issue, Abdullahi has urged the state government to obey the court ruling and abandon its plans to appeal. In a statement issued in Ilorin on Sunday, the former Minister described the government’s plan to appeal as “classic filibuster act, calculated to waste everybody’s time even at tax payers’ expense.

The statement reads:

“The judgment of the High Court on the issue of local government administration in Kwara State has been widely hailed by majority of Kwarans and all lovers of democracy everywhere. The Kwara State Government would therefore do well to obey the court ruling and call for an election immediately.

However, going by the posturing of the state government since the judgment was issued, it does appear that for whatever reasons, government would rather persist on what the court has rightly described as “executive rascality” rather than submit itself to any kind of democratic assessment.

The Kwara state Attorney General has contemptuously described the High Court judgment as a mere “reasoning of the court” and promised to pursue the matter to the appellate courts. But this is a case that the Supreme court itself had already settled.

In a similar case in 2019, the Supreme Court had this to say: “An elected person is not an employee of anybody except the electorate that voted him into office. It is only the electorate who can fire him. In this case, Councilors derive their mandate from the people who voted them in and are accountable to them.”

Noting the memo from the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami on the illegality of caretaker committees upon the judgment, Abdullahi charged the Kwara Government:

“The Kwara State Attorney General must be aware of the Supreme Court ruling of 2019 as well as the memo issued by the Federal Attorney General of the ruling party that they both belong. As his primary responsibility, which is to protect the law and the dignity of the court, he should advise his principal accordingly.

“However, if the Kwara State Government proceeds to appeal the High Court ruling even in the face of this overwhelming evidence, it would be clear that the government only wants to play for time. It is a classic filibuster act, calculated to waste everybody’s time even at tax payers’ expense,” Abdullahi said in cautioning the Kwara government.

“The next step is for the state government to apply for injunction to keep its illegal TIC in place while it lounges its way through the courts, armed with the spurious argument that every case is unique. But this government knows it cannot win this case. But they don’t need to win. They only need to keep their TIC in place till the end of their tenure. They don’t want to be accountable in handling local government finances. But the day of reckoning is surely at hands.

“Even the best run State needs an efficient and accountable local government administration. But for an absentee government that has not held a physical State Executive Council meeting since February 2020, it is even more imperative. It is therefore of little surprise that Kwara State today looks like no one is in charge.

“It is not too late to change course. The State Government should abandon this wooden headed plan to appeal the ruling of the High Court and call for an election without any further delay.”

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