Facts check; Igbinedion, Oshiomole, Obaseki unlawfully removed LGC Chairmen from office

By DADA AYOKHAI
A Benin High Court recently pronounced a landmark judgment in which it stated that the state government lacked powers to remove elected local government chairmen

The judgment of the court still reverberates    around the state, calling to question the propriety or otherwise of the penchant by state authorities to remove elected local government chairmen

 In this particular judgment, delivered by the learned judge, she held that both the Governor as well as the Government failed to substantially comply with the provisions of Sections 20 and 21 of the Edo State Local Government Law, 2000 (as amended), by failing to consult the state assembly as well as an abuse of the grounds upon which the suspension before it embarked on the fruitless suspension of Hon Yakubu Musa, without due recourse to the extant laws of the state.

A fact check shows that this particular judgment by a Benin High Court is not a landmark one in the sense that it simply echoes similar judgments delivered by high courts across the country, stretching even to the apex court of the land, the Supreme Court.

 Sound as it may seem, the judgment has not  deter nor tie the hands of state governors to desist from the unlawful act of removing elected local government chairmen. 

In Edo State, for instance, virtually all the governors who have superintended over the state, from 1999 to date, are guilty of having engaged in the unlawful removal of council chairmen


 Gov Lucky Igbinedion opened the floodgate of suspension of elected council chairmen, while he served as governor between 1999 and 2007. In November 2004, the Igbinedion administration slammed an indefinite suspension on the then council chairman of Igueben, Hon Fred Ijiekhuamen, over an alleged diversion of N3m worth of relief materials, meant for flood disaster victims in the Okallo ward of the council
 

Hon Fred went to court to challenge his suspension, but the then administration did not wait for the legal battle to run its full course before it worked out a political arrangement. 



Prof Osunbor, a law professor, who later succeeded Igbinedion, did not involved in the frivolities of his predecessor, may be as a result of the fact that he spent less than two years in office before he was sacked by the Tribunal 

Then came the administration of the rancorous former labour president, Comrade Adams Oshiomole. Within the eight years he spent in office as governor, he engaged in the flagrant removal and  suspension of seven council chairmen. Among those who bore the brunt of his tyranny included Hon Nosa Ehima, Oredo, suspended for two months over alleged misappropriation of council funds; Hon Johnson Emmashalu, Akoko Edo; Hon
Patrick Aisien , ORIOHOWON LGA , Hon Emmanuel Momoh, Etsako Central; Hon Victor Enobakhare, Egor and Hon Osaro Obazee, Oredo,

 Even the coming of Gov Obaseki, a renown investment banker and technocrat, has not in any way diminished or changed the status quo.  

In his first four years, Gov Obaseki suspended three council chairmen namely, Hon Yakubu Musa, Etsako West; Hon Aremiyau Momoh, Etsako East; and Hon Patrick Aguinede, Esan West local government

As it stands presently, there is no functional local government administration in Edo State.

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