By Kayode Adeoti
The suit between the Kwara State Government and suspended Local Government chairmen has again been adjourned to 4th September, 2019.
The suit which was earlier scheduled to be heard last Monday was adjourned following the prison visit embarked upon by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Durosinlohun Kawu, alongside his lieutenants.
The matter, according to a source in the Wahab Bamidele Chambers, was assigned to Justice Hammed Gegele of the Kwara State High Court.
The suit was filed by four council chairmen among the 16 council bosses who were suspended from office as a result of alleged misappropriation of over N33billion which accrued to the councils.
At the initial stage, the 16 council chairmen filed the suit through their legal representative, Wahab Bamidele, against the government and House of Assembly before 12 of them pulled out to settle for what some stakeholders described as political solution.
The other council chairmen who are currently seeking legal redress to their suspension are; Comrade Yinka Dallas Ayeni of Ekiti Local Government Area, his Irepodun counterpart, Hon Muyiwa Oladipupo better known as Kanu, Aminat Omodara of Ilorin West and Engr Abdulmumini Lah (Ilorin East).
Dallas had in a letter tagged; “Notice of my disagreement with request for withdrawal of law suit’s written by his counsel, Bamidele, reinstated his position to pursue the matter through legal means.
“I want to say clearly that I was not a party to any decision for the withdrawal of the case from court particularly when the case was filed in the individual name of the 16 Local Government Chairmen in our private capacities.
“I also want to say that I authorised your office to re-enter into the case and continue to pursue my case against the defendant to pursue my right in the case to logical conclusion,” he stressed.
Among the many declarations sought by the chairmen was that the claimant is duly and democratically elected to offices as chairmen of their respective councils in Kwara State for a term of three years commencing from 28th November, 2017, the defendants jointly severally or persons in office as Governor of Kwara State and or member of state House of Assembly cannot dissolve or purport to dissolve the office of the chairman of the councils… Before the expiration of the16 councils in the state.
“A declaration that the tenure of the offices of the claimants as chairmen of the 16 councils in Kwara State are protected and guaranteed under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and extant law.
“A declaration that the provisions of the Kwara State Local Government (Amended) law, 2006 are null and void and of no effect for being in conflict with section 7(1) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) guaranteeing the existence of democratically elected Local Government councils in Nigeria.
