Mimiko appeals for calm
From Niyi Bello and Julius Alabi, Akure
CITING an order from the Presidency, all the 18 local council chairmen and their councillors, who had earlier been sacked by the new Labour Party (LP) administration in Ondo State, yesterday defied the dissolution order and resumed duties at the council secretariats, with full security coverage by men of the Nigeria Police.
Reacting yesterday in Abuja, Assistant Commissioner of Police and Public Relations Officer of the Police, Emmanuel Ojukwu, said it was neither the duty of the police to appoint local council chairmen/councillors nor get involved in the politics of their election into office.
"The said order to reinstate them (councillors) into office did not emanate from the office of the Inspector-General of Police," he said.
The development has further heightened the tension that had enveloped the third tier of government in the state since the council dissolution which had put the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which lost the state via the judicial pronouncement of February 23, on the war path with the ruling LP.
The chairmen and their councillors, who were accompanied by armed policemen and other security operatives as they made their entries to their secretariats, which they vacated two weeks ago, said the Presidency had ordered their return to work.
During the weekend, reports had it that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, after listening to the complaints of the leadership of the Ondo PDP, who saw the dissolution as the death knell of the party in the state, had ordered the immediate reinstatement of the chairmen.
The President was said to have been piqued by the alleged illegality of the council dissolution by the Governor Olusegun Mimiko administration predicated on non-compliance with a restraining injunction by an Akure High Court against the conduct of the December 15, 2007 local council polls that produced the executive and legislative arms of the 18 councils by the former Agagu administration.
Yar'Adua was said to have therefore directed that the council chairmen be reinstated until after all the legal tussles were resolved or the governor sought and secured the required two-thirds majority needed in the House of Assembly to comply with the constitutional requirements of council dissolution.
Although activities at the third tier of government in the state have been comatose since the controversial dissolution, with policemen drafted at the prompting of the state government keeping watch and preventing people, especially the removed chairmen, from entering the complexes, the fresh presidential order was said to be in support of the chairmen who all belong to the PDP.
As early as 6.00 a.m., about five vehicles conveying armed policemen had taken positions round the Akure South Council secretariat located on the Ilesa Road while scores of others, including all the Divisional Police Officers in all the five Police Divisions in the Akure metropolis, accompanied the removed Chairman, Adedayo Omolafe, to the secretariat at about 9.00 a.m.
Confirming that the chairmen had been reinstated by presidential orders yesterday morning as he made his way into the secretariat, Omolafe disclosed that a signal that emanated from the office of the Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, was received late last Thursday by the Ondo Commissioner of Police, Charles Dawodu, directing that security cover be provided for him and his colleagues.
Omolafe, who is also the Chairman of the Ondo State branch of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), said they had initially planned to resume last Friday but had to wait till yesterday to consult with other stakeholders to avoid breakdown of law and order.
The council boss said the resumption of the PDP chairmen was to make one fact clear "and that is that as far as we are concerned and as far as the law of the land is concerned, the councils in Ondo State have not been dissolved by anybody.
"The only authority that is empowered to dissolve council administration is the House of Assembly and as we have all seen, the leadership of the House has denounced the illegal act by the state governor.
"We also want to add that as a beneficiary of the rule of law, Governor Mimiko should have allowed the law to take its course rather than acting against the tenets of the constitution."
Signs that something was in the offing came early yesterday morning as the state-owned radio and television stations, made some public service announcements where the governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, appealed to the people to remain calm "in the face of threat by the removed council chairmen to go back to their former offices."
"I, therefore, want to appeal to all stakeholders in the matter to resist the temptation to take laws into their hands and resort to self-help and violence. The development for which we yearn in this state cannot take place in an atmosphere of violence and disorder. On our part, we shall continue to take all necessary steps to prevent and arrest the breakdown of law and order."
Mimiko in an emergency meeting yesterday held in Akure, the Ondo State capital, with the top council's officials said as government of the people, there was a need for absolute protection of lives and property in the council areas and the entire state.
The meeting was hinged on the resolve of the former council bosses to invade their respective secretariats in violation of the earlier dissolution of the councils by Mimiko's administration.
The Governor told the Council Director of Administration that his government would not condone any act of violence or destruction of lives and property from any quarters.
His words: "I want to tell you categorically that this administration would resist any act of breaching the peace of the state."
Mimiko, however, urged the citizens to eschew violence, stressing that there would be no development in a rancorous environment.
He, therefore, assured the people of the state of his pledge to allow the court to adjudicate on the controversy over the dissolution of the executive and the legislative arms of all the 18 local government councils.
Earlier, State Chairman of the LP, Dr. Olaiya Oni, had appealed to members of the party not to stay within the premises of the council secretariats "to avoid confrontation by the dissolved council chairmen who had planned to forcefully take over the secretariats this morning."
However, the chairmen were unable to enter their offices or engage in official assignments because their personal offices and indeed all the offices in the council secretariats were under lock as all the workers obeyed the directives of their union to stay away from work.
The organised labour at the council level, the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) speaking through its caretaker chairman, Joshua Maigida, had announced on state television that "there are plans by some erstwhile political functionaries of local government councils to invade the 18 local government councils in Ondo State with arms and ammunition with effect from Monday, March 16, 2009."
According to him, "in the light of this, and to protect the lives of members of our union, all local government workers are hereby advised to stay at home in their own interest until otherwise directed by the union."
Reports from other council secretariats indicated that all the chairmen have fully resumed and that none of them could enter the offices as they met locked offices and absence of workers.
At the Iju secretariat of Akure North Local Council, Owena secretariat of Idanre and Ile-Oluji secretariat of Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo, the chairmen, Ebenezer Alabi, Afolabi Adesoji and Yejide Ogundipe, all resumed under police protection but met empty offices.
