Ondo LG crisis: I’m not aware of any suit, Akeredolu tells court

A mild drama ensued at the Court of Appeal, sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Monday, as counsel to the Ondo State, governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, Mr Charles Titiloye denied his client involvement in the suit on dissolution of the 18 local government administrators in the state.

The governor was said to have appealed the judgement of Justice Olasehinde Kumuyi, restraining the state government from dissolving or removing the local government chairmen from office.

Akeredolu’s counsel, Titiloye, informed the court that his client got to know about the suit on the pages of newspapers, saying the governor was not aware of both the order of the High Court restraining him from dissolving the councils or of the appeal supposedly filed by him

Titiloye noted that the state’s Solicitor-General, Mr Akin-Ladapo Ogunleye was in court, to demonstrate how concerned the governor was, over the suit, while the 18 local government chairmen and councillors were represented by their counsel, Mr Olusola Oke.

The governor’s legal team however pleaded for adjournment to enable their client study the matter while the presiding judge, Justice Uzo Ndukwe Anyanwu adjourned the suit to June 7, 2017, for hearing.

Akeredolu, according to a hearing notice served on Oke by the state’s Ministry of Justice, had appealed a judgement of the state’s High Court headed by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Olasehinde (now retired) which barred the governor from sacking the council officials elected on the platform of opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The chairman and councillors averred that in line with the 199 Constitution (as amended), they were elected to serve for a three-year tenure, which would expire on April 25, 2019.

In granting their prayers, Justice Kumuyi observed that the “tenure of an elected councilor or office holder cannot be abridged or determined at the whims or caprices of anyone one except the electorate.”

She, therefore, restrained the state government from dissolving, sacking, dethroning, impeaching or however removing the claimants from their respective positions, offices, duties, functions, powers and rights.