Oyo: Makinde goes wild, orders attacks on elected chairmen, as CP turns blind eye  – ALGON alleges

The Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Oyo State chapter on Friday  condemned the return of brigandage to the state, disrupting the peaceful atmosphere, foundation of which was laid by the administration of former governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.

ALGON, in a statement signed by its chairman, Prince Ayodeji Abass Aleshinloye in Ibadan  expressed this sadness while reacting to the invasion of local government headquarters across the state by thugs believed to be loyal to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Council boss of Oluyole Local Government, Prince Aleshinloye said “Earlier today, PDP thugs had unleashed violence in local government headquarters in Ibarapa East, Saki West, Atisbo, Ibadan North East ,Ido, Ogo Oluwa, Surulere South and Ibadan South East local government areas even with the heavy presence of the Police who seemed helpless as the mayhem continued.

” It would be recalled that the governor of Oyo state, Engr Seyi Makinde had met with the Caretaker chairmen yesterday where he assured them of their right to occupy the local councils having said that he did not meet democratically elected chairmen in office when he took over governance”.

Governor Makinde was also alleged to have doled out a sum of N3.5m (three million, five hundred thousand naira) to each of the caretaker chairmen to mobilise their people in readiness for their return to the local councils today. The Governor was also said to have held a private meeting with an official of the Oyo State branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Lamidi Mukaila popularly known as Auxiliary who recently regained freedom from prisons over a charge of murder, where the NURTW chieftain was given an undisclosed amount of money as mobilisation for today’s event.

Prince Ayodeji Abass-Alesinloye further  described the invasion of local councils as the height of executive recklessness by Governor Makinde while advising the governor to live true to his responsibility as the chief security officer of the state by respecting the rule of law as pronounced by the Supreme Court on the local government administration.

“It is quite unfortunate that the Governor is now the one promoting chaos with his support for this illegality.”

The ALGON chairman however urged men of the Nigerian Police Force and other security operatives to live up to their responsibility by reining in the political thugs causing mayhem in the State.

“Our fight is legitimate. The Supreme Court has ruled on this that no Governor has the right to dissolve democratically elected local government administration. The constitution is also clear on this”.

Abass- Aleshinloye also warned against the continued tampering of the finances of Local Councils as being done by the Caretaker chairmen.

“ Let me sound a note of warning for the umpteenth time. Tampering with finances of Local government by Caretaker chairmen is the height of illegality. The law will take its course on any of them who does that. We have written to banks on this and we do not expect the banks to be complicity in this illegality “.