Council chiefs' sack reversible by court, says Mimiko
From Niyi Bello, Akure
THE Ondo State government has not foreclosed the possibility of reversing the March 4, 2009 dissolution of the executive and legislative arms of the 18 local councils, according to Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
But the governor insisted that such a reversal would only come if a competent court ruled that the council chiefs should be reinstated.
While denying that he had made up his mind that the dissolution was irreversible, Mimiko, in a statement made available to The Guardian by his Chief Press Secretary, Kolawole Olabisi, said he was misquoted by a section of the media which created "the false impression of finality."
The governor said although he "took full responsibility for the dissolution of the councils as the decision to dissolve them was taken based on legal advice from the State Ministry of Justice," he would not wish to join issues with anybody on the correctness or otherwise of the action because "it has already become a matter before a competent court of law."
According to him, "issues are already joined and my position has consistently been that since the chairmen of these councils have gone to court and we have joined issues, we should allow the courts of law to adjudicate in this matter.
"So, the reversibility or otherwise of the dissolution of the councils will be the prerogative of the courts of law arising from these processes. However, as I have constantly reiterated, ours is a government committed to democratic practice, fairness, rule of law and due process, and we will abide by whatever pronouncement the courts make on this issue."
Speaking in the same vein, Chief Sola Ebiseeni, the running mate of the governorship candidate of the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA) in the April 14, 2007 polls, has said that the matter should be left for the courts to decide.
Ebiseeni, who spoke with The Guardian on the matter during the weekend, said with the Appeal Court pronouncement that dissolved the 30 local councils of Osun State , he was sure that the dissolution order of the Ondo government would be affirmed.
According to him, "there were so many fundamental blunders committed deliberately by the former Agagu administration to thwart the democratic process. Although the illegalities appeared to be the same with that of Osun, the Ondo blunders were more pronounced."
Meanwhile, the State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has called on its members in the state to discountenance an announcement made by the Association of Local Government Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGON) in Ondo State asking workers to resume duty.
According to the Caretaker Chairman of NULGE in the state, Mr. Joshua Maigida, "in view of the current precarious security in the councils occasioned by the takeover of the secretariats by former councils' political office holders, workers of the state chapter of the union must not report to duties except they hear from the NULGE leadership in the state.
"We want to state emphatically that our members will not resume work because the security report reaching us still indicates that tension is still very high and because of this, council employees in the state are still required to stay at home until otherwise directed by the union . We do not want to lose a soul."
