Plateau govt to pay sacked Councillors N1.57bn severance allowances

Following a court judgement that faulted the dissolution of elected councillors in 2015, Plateau Government is to pay N1.57 billion as severance allowances to sacked Councillors in the 17 Local Government Areas of the state.

Governor Simon Lalong had on June 15, 2015 sacked the elected council officials, Chairmen and Councillors, and replaced them with Interim Management Committees (IMCs).

Dissatisfied with their sack, both Chairmen and Councillors separately challenged Lalong’s decision in Courts, and Judgement was entered in favour of the Councillors on Friday, Aug 4, 2017 by State High Court III, which handled their own case.

Justice David Mann, the High Court III Presiding Judge, while delivering his judgement faulted the removal of the elected councillors when their two-year tenure was remaining nine months.

The judge had maintained that their (councillors’) sack was in blatant violation of section 23 of the Local Government Council Law and Provision of Sections 1 and 2 of the Plateau amended Local Government Council Law of 2007.

Mr Gyang Zi, Counsel to the councillors told newsmen in Jos on Wednesday that “We are happy that the court rule in our favour even though it did not give an order for the garnishing of the accounts of the State and Local Governments.”

“By the Judgement of the High Court last Friday, My Clients, 271 of them are entitled to N1.57 billion as their severance allowances from the Plateau State Government and the 17 Local Governments of the state.”

“If the court had given an order for the garnishing of the state government and Local Governments’ accounts, we would have gone straight to garnish the accounts.”

“As we talk, we are already preparing our letter demanding for the payment as their (Councillors’) entitlements for the remaining nine months in their two years tenure as elected representatives of their people,” Zi argued.

Zi described the judgement of the High Court as “victory to democracy” and commended the Judge for a “thorough job and fair judgement.”

Contacted, Mr Garba Pwul (SAN), Counsel to Governor Lalong, said that the judgement was still studying the judgment, deciding whether to appeal or not.

“We are still studying the court judgement right now; we could only decide whether to appeal or not after careful study of its contents,” Pwul stated