What can be done to stop governors from sacking elected chairmen and councilors and appointing sole administrators or caretaker committees in their place, in defiance of two Supreme Court judgments declaring the practice unconstitutional? ROBERT EGBE reviews the situation following the recent crisis in Oyo State.
Last Wednesday, suspected political thugs abducted the chairman of Afijio Local Government Area (LGA) of Oyo State, Samuel Aderemi, at the council headquarters in Jobele.
Aderemi, who was one of the chairmen sacked by Governor Seyi Makinde last year, was rescued two hours later by security agents.
The thugs reportedly stormed the council secretariat in an attempt to prevent Aderemi and councilors under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from resuming their duties.
They were also said to have caused mayhem in Ibadan North and Ibadan North East local councils and Omi Apata Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
Despite the presence of security agents, comprising the Police and Civil Defence, members of the APC and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) reportedly sustained injuries in the free-for-all that ensued.
Aderemi and other chairmen and councillors had threatened two days earlier to resume duties in the 68 local councils and LCDA secretariats.
The violence was the latest episode of the Local Government crisis in the state.
The national leadership of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has also directed its members in the 33 local governments and 35 local council development areas (LCDA) in Oyo State to withdraw their services pending the resolution of the crisis.
Origin of the crisis
The last election conducted into local government offices in Oyo State was during the administration of former governor Rashidi Ladoja between 2003 and 2007.
Ladoja’s successor Adebayo Alao-Akala was unable to conduct election due to protracted litigation by the sacked elected council members against the government and the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) board.
The litigations dragged till 2018 when Governor Abiola Ajimobi dispensed with them, according to the Chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye.
The immediate past administration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi conducted election into the 33 local governments and 35 LCDAs on May 12, 2018. The poll was boycotted by many political parties, paving the way for the APC to clear all the seats.
The major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has maintained that there was a high court judgment that restrained the state electoral commission from conducting the election and that it was for that reason the party did not participate in the election.
The issue of the delineation of the LCDAs generated crisis in some communities. But the APC insisted that there was no issue.
With the triumph of the PDP in the governorship election, the Makinde administration succeeded Ajimobi, but the local government councils are under the control of the APC.
Before the governor was sworn in, the elected chairmen dragged the state government, the House of Assembly and the state electoral commission to court, seeking an order restraining the first two from dissolving them, and the third from conducting a fresh election before the end of their three-year tenure in 2021.
An Oyo State High Court granted their prayers in a May last year judgment.
After Makinde was inaugurated as the new governor, he ignored the judgment and announced the sack of the councils, just two hours after he was sworn in. He said their election was illegal because the 35 LCDAs were not recognised by the constitution.
The elected chairmen, under the aegis of ALGON, dragged the governor to court for contempt. The appeal is still being heard. The appellate court has fixed February 19 for the adoption of addresses by parties in the case.
But, while the appeal is ongoing, Makinde sacked members of the state electoral commission with a firm promise to pay them off.
The OYSIEC Board members have since challenged their sack in court.
Following the sacking of the elected chairmen and councilors, the governor appointed caretaker committees to take govern the councils.
But Makinde disputed ALGON’s version of event.
Last Thursday, he said he did not meet any elected local government official when he came in as Governor.
He spoke when he met with the 33 Caretaker Chairmen of local governments and 35 chairmen of Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) he appointed last month.
Makinde was speaking amidst the crisis that is currently rocking the local government administration in the state.
He described the local government Chairmen whom he sacked, as mere pretenders.
“But as far as I am concerned, when we came in, in the eyes of the law, we did not meet any elected local government official. We met pretenders and we have asked them to leave. And that is also the position of the law until the court says otherwise,” he said.
Can a governor remove elected chairmen and councilors?
Makinde is not alone in sacking elected chairmen and councilors and appointing caretaker committees in their place.
12 other states – seven of the APC and four of the PDP – also run councils with appointed caretakers instead of chairmen, in defiance of court orders.
Anambra State, which is controlled by the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), also has administrators in place at the councils.
The APC states are: Borno, Kogi, Katsina, Kwara, Imo, Ogun, and Yobe, while the PDP states are Bauchi, Taraba, Benue, Enugu,
What the Supreme Court said
In 2006, Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, removed 148 elected local government officials following which they challenged their removal up to the apex court.
In 2012, the Supreme Court held that state governors do not have the powers to sack their elected officials.
The court unanimously held that the action was illegal and amounted to official recklessness by the governor.
The five-member panel of justices led by Justice Walter Onnoghen held that no state governor in the country had the right to remove democratically-elected local government officials.
The court then ordered the state government to pay the sacked officials their salaries and entitlement for the remaining 23 months of their tenure before they were kicked out.
The apex court passed a similar decision on December 9, 2016, when it voided laws enacted by states’ Houses of Assembly that empowered governors to sack elected local government chairmen and councillors and replace them with handpicked administrators.
In the unanimous judgment of five justices, the Supreme Court described the sacking of elected local government administrators as “executive recklessness” that should stop immediately.
The judgment by the five-man panel, led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, was given in an appeal over the dissolution of the 16 local government executives in Ekiti State by Dr. Kayode Fayemi during his first term as governor.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE 1999 CONSTITUTION
Section 7. • The system of local
government by democratically
elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the Government of every State shall, subject to section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.
⦁ The person authorised by law to prescribe the area over which a local government council may exercise authority shall-
(a) define such area as clearly as practicable; and
(b) ensure, to the extent to which it may be reasonably justifiable that in defining such area regard is paid to –
(i) the common interest of the community in the area;
(ii) traditional association of the community; and
(iii) administrative convenience.
⦁ it shall be the duty of a local government council within the state to participate in economic planning and development of the area referred to in subsection (2) of this section and to this end an economic planning board shall be established by a Law enacted by the House of Assembly of the State.
⦁ The Government of a State shall ensure that every person who is entitled to vote or be voted for at an election to House of Assembly shall have the right to vote or be voted for at an election to a local government council.
⦁ The functions to be conferred by Law upon local government council shall include those set out in the Fourth Schedule to this Constitution.
⦁ Subject to the provisions of this Constitution –
(a) the National Assembly shall make provisions for statutory allocation of public revenue to local government councils in the Federation; and
(b) the House of Assembly of a State shall make provisions for statutory allocation of public revenue to local government councils within the State.

The Supreme Court, in faulting the law purportedly relied on by Fayemi to dissolve the local government administration, held that Section 23(b) of the Ekiti State Local Government Administration (Amendment) Law, 2001, which empowered the governor to dissolve local government councils, whose tenure was yet to expire, violated section 7(1) of the Constitution from which the state House of Assembly derived the power to enact the local government law.
Justice Centus Nweze, who delivered the lead judgment, held that the tenure of the local government councils could not be abridged without violating the supreme constitutional provisions.
Besides the two landmark judgments, other lower courts across the country had at different times, condemned the frequent habit of governors to use caretaker committees to run the affairs of local government councils.
AGF steps in
When Makinde refused to reverse the sack, ALGON and the state chapter of the APC sent a petition on the governor’s action to the Presidency, the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
AGF Abubakar Malami SAN responded by advising Makinde to obey the Supreme Court judgments on the issue, through a letter dated January 14, 2020.
Malami told the governor that in view of the decision of the Supreme Court on the matter that is binding on all the 36 states of the federation, “the common practice by some state governors in dissolving elected local government councils is unconstitutional, null and void.”
Following the governor’s refusal to heed the advice, Malami sent another letter to the IGP, directing him to effect reinstatement of the sacked elected council members.
The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, has also directed the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Shina Olukolu, to ensure reinstatement of the sacked chairmen and councillors.
Adamu, in a letter dated January 23, 2020 and addressed to the Oyo State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Akin Oke, asked him to liaise with Olukolu to facilitate the implementation of the AGF’s legal opinion.
However, the AGF and the police met a roadblock last Tuesday following an Oyo State High Court, order restraining the 68 sacked council chairmen and chairmen of local council development areas (LCDAs) from the forceful and illegal takeover of the council offices across the state.
Justice Moshud Abass granted the four reliefs sought by the state government, which was represented by Dr. Akin Onigbinde (SAN).
In the order of interim injunction, Justice Abass restrained the sacked chairmen from forcefully taking over the councils or resort to steps capable of causing a breach of peace in the state.
The court also restrained Malami, the IGP, and the Oyo State APC chairman, Mr. Akin Oke, their agents from taking any step that could tamper with status quo pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.
Can Fed Govt withhold council funds from erring states?
Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) Dr Olisa Agbakoba and Dr Paul Ananaba condemned states for defying the Supreme Court.
Agbakoba told The Nation that the Federal Government could approach the courts for authorisation to withhold council funds from erring states.
Agbakoba said: “The governors are wrong to disrespect the judgment of the Supreme Court and I brought a suit against states running non democratic caretaker LGAs and requested Mr Justice Hassan of the FHC, to order the FG to withhold fund to the non-democratic LGAs but this was declined.
“But I think this presents a great opportunity for the Supreme Court to direct the FG to withhold funds . The principle to be learned is that the quest for federalism works both ways, at the level of both the FG, and state Governments.”
Ananaba didn’t advocate for withholding of council funds but noted that the erring state governors were acting illegally.
He said:
Former chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Okoi Obono-Obla, also explained the effect of the apex court’s judgment on governors’ powers.
He said: “The implication is that the Supreme Court has set a precedent on this issue and henceforth any State Government that dissolves a democratically elected local government council in its state and substitutes it with undemocratically appointed caretaker Local government council is acting unconstitutionally, and such a decision is ultra vires, null and void and of no effect.
“Also, another implication is that undemocratically elected local government area councils are not entitled to enjoy the monthly allocation of revenue from the Federation accounts.
“Conversely, any State Law that infringes on Section 8 of the Constitution that provides that the Government of every State shall subject to ensure their existence under a law which provides for their establishment, structure, composition, finance, and functions of such councils is illegal, null and void.”
PDP kicks against withholding of council funds
Not surprisingly, the Oyo State chapter of the PDP opposed calls for the Federal Government to withhold funds due to a federating unit.
Its spokesperson, Akeem Olatunji, said: “I want to reiterate that nowhere in the 1999 Constitution is the president or his agents given the power to withhold funds due to states or local government councils or even the National Judicial Council by virtue of the provision of Section 162 subsection (9) thereof. In other words, the president has no supervisory power over the state and the local government councils.
“Nigeria as a country is practising federalism, not a unitary system of government, hence the needs for separation of power and avoid ridiculous action that can jeopardise the image of Nigeria within the comity of nations,” he said.
Resolution in sight?
However, there seems to be hope for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Oyo State in the long run.
Makinde last Wednesday visited IGP Adamu in Abuja and stated that his administration does not want trouble.
His chief press secretary, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, who issued a statement on the visit, explained that Makinde declared that his administration would obey the judgment of the court once the pending appeals on the local government dissolution in the state were decided.