A ruling by the Supreme Court has made it impossible for State Governors
to ever sack or dissolve democratically-elected local government
councils.
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi
The Supreme Court on Friday stripped Governors of the power to sack
local government chairmen. It described it as “executive recklessness”
to ramP@ntly dissolve democratically-elected local government councils
in their states and replacing them with caretaker committees.
The apex court ruled that the provisions of the laws enacted by the
states’ Houses of Assembly empowering governors to carry out such
dissolution and replace them with caretaker committees was null and
void.
This was the decision reached by a five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour on Friday.
The appeal in which the Supreme Court made the pronouncements arose
from the dissolution of 16 local government councils in Ekiti State by
the then Governor Kayode Fayemi.
Fayemi, who is now the Minister of Mineral Resources, was said to
have announced the dissolution of the councils in a radio announcement
on October 29, 2010, when the chairmen still had up till December 19,
2011, to complete their three-year tenure.
But in the lead judgment delivered by Justice Chima Nweze, the apex court condemned the decision of the then governor.
The apex court adopted an earlier order made by the Court of Appeal
on the case in its judgment delivered on January 23, 2013, directing
the Ekiti State Government to compute and pay all the allowances and
salaries accruable to members of the dissolved councils between October
29, 2010 and December 19, 2011, both dates inclusive