The sacked local government chairmen and other elected officials under the aegis of Association of Local Government of Nigeria in Oyo State have explained why they rejected Governor Seyi Makinde to pay them off.
The ALGON chairman, Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye, said accepting the governor’s offer would have amounted to corruption.
He said they were not after money, saying their goal was to further deepen democracy, especially at the grassroots.
Abass-Alesinloye spoke in Ibadan on Tuesday when he led other dissolved council officials to say thank you to their counsel, Chief Niyi Akintola, whom he said represented them free of charge.
He said “How can you give me money for the work I didn’t do and I have not done. Governor Makinde wanted to pay us last year when we have not done the work. And it is not legal and at the end of the day, it is all about corruption.
“If we had collected the money, we would have encouraged corruption. And anybody can come up later in the year or in the nearest future to challenge us that we collected money for the work we did not do.
“But, now, any proclamation from the Supreme Court is the law. This is the law. A judgment has been given, the money is due to us and we can collect it now.
“When he (governor) wanted to pay us, the question was, why did he want to pay us? Why will he even sack us in the first instance? Why would you do that? If he had done that and later said he wanted to pay us, then that in itself is corruption, so we will never be part of a thing like that.”
One of the vice-chairmen, Chief Ademola Olawale, also told our correspondent that Makinde has succeeded in wasting the state resources because of impunity.
He said, ” Makinde should be questioned for wilful waste of scarce resources. What is happening now means he would pay us and pay his illegal caretaker committees for the same job.”
Akintola said he decided to offer free legal service to the dissolved council officials as part of his own contributions to the development of the party.