UPDATED: Supreme Court faults Govs Makinde, Masari’s dissolution of Oyo, Katsina LGs’ chairpersons, councillors

The Supreme Court on Friday said the dissolution of the Local Governments Chairpersons and councillors in Oyo and Katsina States, and their replacement with caretaker committees by governors Seyi Makinde and Aminu Masari was illegal and unconstitutional.

According to the panel of Justices of the apex Court, the Oyo State governor erred by dissolving all the elected council officials and replacing them with the caretaker committee and consequently set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Ibadan, which approved the sack of elected council chairpersons by the state Governor.

The sacked chairpersons, led by Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye, had approached the court to vindicate them saying they were illegally sacked.

The apex court, in a unanimous judgement by a five-man panel of Justices, held that governor Makinde acted beyond his powers when on his assumption of office on May 29, 2019, he sacked the Chairmen of the 33 Local Government Areas, LGAs, as well as 35 Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs, in the state.

The apex court stressed that no governor has the constitutional power to illegally terminate the tenure of democratically elected local government Chairmen and Councillors.

Supreme Court, in its lead judgement read by Justice Ejembi Eko, noted that Governor Makinde took the action despite a subsisting court order and added that the Governor acted, “invidiously and in contemptuous disregard of a High Court judgement”, when he dissolved the democratically elected Chairmen and Councillors and appointed Caretaker Committees in their stead.

It held that his action was in breach of section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended adding that governors were duty-bound to preserve democratically elected Local Government Councils.

Consequently, the apex court invoked its original jurisdiction under section 22 of the Supreme Court Act and vacated the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Ibadan, which earlier validated governor Makinde’s action.

It held that the appellate court was wrong when it held that there was no reasonable cause of action in the suit the appellants filed to forestall their sack.

Though the Supreme Court acknowledged that the three-year tenure of the sacked Chairmen and Councillors had since expired, it held that they deserved to be compensated for their tenure that was “illegally truncated” on May 29, 2019.

It, therefore, ordered the Oyo State Government to pay each of the sacked Chairmen and Councillors their accrued salaries and allowances and further directed the Attorney-General of Oyo State to, before August 7, file an affidavit attesting to the payment of such salaries and allowances to the appellants.

Besides, the court awarded a cost of N20 million in favour of the appellants.

Other Justices that concurred with the lead judgement the apex court delivered during a virtual session is held on Friday, were Justices Kekere Ekun, Inyang Okoro, Ibrahim Saulawa and Adamu Jauro.

The LG Council bosses who were elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) and sworn in by the former governor of the state, Abiola Ajimobi, had before Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took over, filed a suit to secure their positions.

Following their suit, Justice Aderonke Aderemi of Oyo State High Court, in a judgement on May 6, 2019, restrained the state from dissolving the elected LG Chairmen and Councillors.

However, immediately after he assumed office on May 29, 2019, governor Makinde, lodged an appeal against the high court judgement, even as he sacked all the Local Government Chairmen and Councillors.

The appellate court subsequently dismissed the case of the LG Council bosses on the premise that it was “pre-emptive, premature, speculative and failed to disclose reasonable facts.”

In a similar judgement, the apex court declared the dissolution of the duly elected Local government Council Chairmen under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State as unlawful.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Adamu Jauro, the apex consequently, directed that the unlawfully dissolved council officials be paid all their entitlements from the date of their illegal dissolution to the date they were to vacate office.

The court in arriving at its decision set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal and allowed the appeal marked SC 244/218, filed by Abubakar Ibrahim Yantaba and others Vs Governor of Katsina State.

Governor Masari had on assumption of office in July 2015, dissolved the state dully elected Council officials on allegation of financial misappropriation of councils funds, a decision which the apex court declared as illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.

The Supreme Court also awarded costs to the Appellants and insisted that it should be complied with within a time frame.

Before the legal action got to the apex court, the Katsina State chapter of PDP had dragged the state governor, Aminu Bello Masari and the state house of assembly to court over alleged move to dissolve the 34 local government councils in the state.

Joined in the suit were the Attorney General of the state as the second defendant while Masari and the state assembly are the first and third defendants respectively.

In a writ of summons with reference number: KTH/38/2015, dated July 1, 2015, the PDP sought the court to restrain the defendants from dissolving the council chairmen.

The PDP also sought a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from, “Suspending or in any other way removing all or any of the 34 local government councils in Katsina State before the expiration of their tenure.

The party also asked for a declaration that upon declaration of relevant laws, including the amended Katsina State local government law, the tenure of the 34 local government councils in the state is two years.

It alleged that Masari has no legal right to dissolve, suspend or remove any of the 34 local governments before the expiration of their tenure.

The PDP insisted that its move was informed by an announcement by the governor, indicating the intention of his administration to dissolve the local government councils.

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