THE House of



Representatives on Tuesday directed the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Ibrahim Dankwambo, to withhold the allocations of the 16 local government councils in Ekiti State dissolved by Governor Kayode Fayemi.



The House said that funds should only be released to the councils after democratically-elected officials were sworn-in to administer their affairs.



In the interim, it asked the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafi Ringim, to provide security for the sacked council officials to return to their offices.



As at 5pm on Tuesday, policemen had been deployed in the LGA secretariats to prevent breakdown of law and order.



But the lawmakers’ directive attracted criticism from the state government, the Action Congress of Nigeria and three eminent lawyers — Prof. Itse Sagay, Chief Wole Olanipekun and Mr. Femi Falana.



The directive followed the passage of a motion by a Peoples Democratic Party member from Ekiti State, Mr. Adewale Aribisala.



He had drawn the attention of his colleagues to what he called the “illegality of the action of the governor” in dissolving the councils.



The House, in passing the motion, said that the sacking of the council officials by any governor without recourse to Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution (First Alteration) was a breach of law.



Aribisala argued that under the extant law of the state, Fayemi could only dissolve a council after a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of members of the state house of assembly.



The lawmaker claimed that the governor dissolved the councils without such a resolution being passed, neither were members of the House in the state when the governor ‘unilaterally’ carried out the action.



But as the motion was being debated, there was a sharp division between the PDP and ACN members in the House.



All the ACN members, who contributed to the debate, backed Fayemi’s action.



They argued that the election that brought the council officials to office was conducted by the Segun Oni administration, which they said was not a legitimate one.



The ACN lawmakers claimed that the recent court decision, which voided Oni‘s election and declared Fayemi as the legitimate governor of the state, implied that the council poll he conducted was also illegal.



However, the Minority Whip of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, who is also the ACN Leader, advised the parties to the dispute to approach the court for the correct interpretation of the position of the law on the matter.



Mr. Patrick Obahiagbon, from Edo State, also opposed the motion and supported Gbajabiamila’s suggestion that the judiciary should decide the matter.



Also, a member of the ACN from Lagos State, Ms. Jumoke Okoya-Thomas, told the House that the “sacked council officials have been sitting illegally.



“Even the former governor (Oni) was sitting in office illegally; so the new governor (Fayemi) has done the right thing by dissolving the councils.”



However, in his lead debate, Aribisala described Fayemi’s action as “ultra-vires and capable of disrupting the fragile peace in the state.”



He noted that the councils were elected democratically and had a tenure of three years under the enabling law passed by the state house of assembly.



Aribisala said, “The governor, in disregard to the constitution, dissolved the 16 local government councils.



“These councils had a tenure of three years to terminate in 2012.”



The Chairman of the House Committee on Air Force, Mr. Halims Agoda; the Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary, Mr. Bala Na‘Allah; and Mr. Gbenga Elegbeleye, all PDP members, kicked against the dissolution of the councils.



The chairman of the South-South Parliamentary Caucus, Mr. Andrew Uchendu, who is a member of the PDP, opposed the motion.



He noted that the House was dabbling in matters reserved for states to sort out.



Uchendu said, ”The parties to the Ekiti crisis should go to court to resolve this issue.



“It is not our business as a parliament to go into this issue because there is no point passing a resolution that will not be enforced.”



He recalled that a similar resolution passed on the political crisis in the Ogun State House of Assembly two weeks ago had not been enforced.



Uchendu‘s advice was ignored, as the majority of the PDP members in the House passed the motion in a voice vote.



The Speaker of the House, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, observed after the motion was passed that such resolutions were enforceable to the extent that they received the concurrence of the Senate.



Reacting, the Ekiti State Government said the House alone could not take a decision on such matters.



“They need the concurrence of the senate. It is a resolution and it is not binding . It is not something they can enforce,” it said in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Media, Mr. Mojeed Jamiu.



Jamiu said, “The position of the government on the 16 local government councils is that they remain dissolved. We shall appoint a caretaker committee as soon as honourable members of the state House of Assembly reconvene.



“The Ekiti State Council of traditional rulers are behind the state government on the dissolution of the councils. They issued a communique to that effect today (Tuesday) and it was signed by Oba Adetunji Ajayi, the Aromijale of Ise Ekiti who is the chairman of the Ekiti State Traditional Council.”



In its reaction, the ACN said what the lawmakers did was “petty, lawless and vindictive.”



The party, therefore, advised the Accountant-General of the Federation to “disregard the meaningless resolution, in view of the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Lagos case that no one, not the President or the National Assembly, has the powers to withhold local government allocation for whatever reason.”



“The resolution passed by the House of Representatives is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and ultra vires, and should be ignored by the executive,” the party added in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.



The ACN also urged the Senate to be “careful not to lend its backing to such an irresponsible and arrogant show of power by the House of Representatives.



“The resolution, which is very typical of the PDP and the institutions it dominates, makes a mockery of the Supreme Court, whose decisions override any law, and undermines the judiciary,‘‘ it said.



“It is sad for the PDP that instead of using its majority in the National Assembly to advance the course of democracy and enhance the welfare of Nigerians, all the party can do – through its clueless members in the House of Representatives – is to dabble in an issue that portrays the party as a bad loser,” the ACN added.



Also on Tuesday, Sagay and Olanipekun said in their separate reactions that the House lacked the power to direct Dankwambo to take illegal action, saying that the lawmakers were clowns and ignorant of the theory of separation of powers.



Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said, ”The lawmakers are clowns and ignorant. Have they forgotten the case of the Lagos State Attorney-General v. Attorney-General of the Federation where the Supreme Court slammed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for withholding Lagos Local Government funds.



“The right to funds by the three tiers of government is sacrosanct and thousands resolutions of the House are not binding in any case, the House has no powers to give such a directive to the Acountant-General of the Federation. Dankwambo should ignore the laughable resolution as the lawmakers are childish.”



On his part, Olanipekun(SAN), said that the resolution was illegal and unconstitutional.



He also reminded the lawmakers of the “ landmark judgment of the Supreme Court where the apex court lashed out at Obasanjo for withholding Lagos State Local Government funds.”



Falana, who also described the resolution as unconstitutional, called on the Inspector-General of Police, and the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, not to comply with the Reps’ directive.



“We call on the IG and the Finance minister to ignore the illegal and contemptuous resolutions of the House and allow the Ekiti State High Court to determine the legality or otherwise of the dissolution of the LGAs by the Ekiti State Government,” he said.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101103434212

What I don’t understand here is the statement that Segun Oni conducted election elections were conducted by INEC and if INEC had legal rights to conduct elections at that time and no court had said the LG elections were fraudulent I don’t think we can call it illegality just because the sitting governor at the time of the elections was illegal. I am not a lawyer but this doesn’t make sense to me.

Major problem in Nigeria is very slow way of implementing thing - all this should have been well stated. Well since its up, the Anthony General, NBA and supreme court should rectify this immediately.

What I don’t understand here is the statement that Segun Oni conducted election elections were [b]conducted by INEC [/b]and if INEC had legal rights to conduct elections at that time and no court had said the LG elections were fraudulent I don’t think we can call it illegality just because the sitting governor at the time of the elections was illegal. I am not a lawyer but this doesn’t make sense to me.

Inec dont conduct local govt elections. It is the responsibility of the state govt through the state electoral commission to conduct elections into local councils. It is left for the court to decide weather or not an election conducted by an illegal govt can stand but the fact remains that the action of the house of reps is an abuse of legislative power. The supreme court has ruled in the case of lagos state VS the federal govt that no arm of govt has the power to withhold funds meant for another arm. The right to those funds is sacrosanct and no amount of resolution can change that.