Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, on Monday applauded the Supreme Court’s judgement which held that the sack of elected local government chairmen and councillors by state governments and appointment of caretaker administrators is illegal.
This judgement buttresses Dogara’s position that state governors do not have the constitutional right to sack duly elected local government officials and justified the need for local government financial and administrative autonomy, in order for local Government councils to develop.
The Supreme Court judgment delivered by the five-man panel, led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, in the case of the appeal against the dissolution of the 16 Local Government Executives in Ekiti State, during Kayode Fayemi’s tenure.
Dogara who described the practice as “executive recklessness”, argued that such abuse must not be allowed to persist.
“State Governors have a constitutional responsibility to act according to the dictates of the judgement, as Nigeria is a nation of laws and not of men.
“The National Assembly will undoubtedly, intervene legislatively to solve this problem,” the statement issued by Dogara’s Special Adviser on Media & Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan read in part.
According to him,, clauses granting financial autonomy to both local councils and State Houses of Assembly are being considered by the National Assembly in the ongoing constitutional amendment exercise.
The proposals includes denying federal allocation to local governments that do not have democratically elected council officials.
“In the interim, the Federal Ministry of Finance should be guided by the Supreme Court decision which makes it illegal to release Federation Account funds to an unelected Council.”
In an interview recently, the Speaker described the state-local government Joint Account as “evil” and urged state legislators to move against governors who refused to conduct council polls and hijack their funds.
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