The Federal Government has reiterated its stance on the illegality of state governors dismissing elected local government chairmen and their deputies, calling such actions unconstitutional and a treasonable offense.
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, emphasized this position on Wednesday in Abuja, asserting that any future occurrences of such dismissals must be treated as treason. His remarks come amid recent violence in Osun State over the leadership of local government councils.
In Edo State, Governor Monday Okpebholo recently suspended all council chairmen and their deputies, citing their failure to submit annual reports to the state government.
This position aligns with a Supreme Court ruling delivered on July 11, 2024, by a seven-member panel led by Justice Garba Lawal. The Court ruled that Nigeria’s 774 Local Governments should be granted full financial autonomy and prohibited governors from dissolving democratically elected council officials, deeming such actions a breach of the 1999 Constitution.
At the opening of an event organized by the Nigeria Bar Association on Wednesday, the AGF, represented by Tijani Gazali, Director of Civil Appeals at the Federal Ministry of Justice, accused governors and state assemblies of defying the constitution and the Supreme Court’s ruling, which bars interference in Local Government Affairs.
“It is unfortunate that over the last few decades in Nigeria, in plain contradiction of the constitutional mandates of state governments, local governments have now seen a great decline as they are nothing but a mere appendage of the state governments, merely existing as a means of supplying extra funds for the state governments.
“The most unfortunate of the decline is the unconstitutional connivance by state governors and their state Houses of Assemblies to willing democratically elected local government structures without recourse to the rule of law and replacing them with their candidates.
“Local government structures had almost become extinct in Nigeria and that necessitated the action taken by President Bola Tinubu to immediately intervene through the filing of a suit in the Supreme Court in 2024.
“Despite the judgment of the Supreme Court outlawing the illegal removal of democratically elected local government councils by state governors, few states have continued to carry on with this illegality. This act is tantamount to treason and must be treated as such”, he declared.
