Supreme Court scraps law empowering govs to sack LG chairmen

The Supreme Court on Friday proscribed a law that empowers governors to sack democratically elected local government (LG) chairmen in their states and replacing them with caretaker committees.

While the court described such an act as “executive recklessness”, it also abolished the provisions of the laws enacted by the states’ Houses of Assembly which give state governors powers to dissolve and replace local councils with caretaker committees.

This pronouncement came as a result of a unanimous judgment of Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour-led five-man panel of the Supreme Court on Friday, which sat on a case challenging the dissolution of 16 local government councils in Ekiti State by the state’s former governor, Kayode Fayemi.

Fayemi, now the Minister of Solid Mineral Resources, had in October 29, 2010, announced the dissolution of the councils in a radio broadcast, even as the chairmen involved still had up till December 19, 2011, to conclude their three-year tenure.

The Apex court, in the lead judgment delivered by Justice Chima Nweze, condemned the decision of the then governor.

The court further embraced an earlier order the Court of Appeal gave on the case in its judgment delivered on January 23, 2013. It directed the Ekiti State Government to calculate and pay all the allowances and salaries due to members of the disbanded councils between October 29, 2010 and December 19, 2011, both dates inclusive.

When computed, Governor Ayo Fayose will have to pay 15 months’ salary to the 16 sacked local government chairmen.

In many states across Nigeria, the power and authority vested in the local governments have been radically altered and eroded. The governors of the States hardly allow the LGs to function as the third tier of government and would not allow elections to be conducted into them.

The stranglehold has meant that LGs remained appendages of the the state executives, relying on the whims and caprices of Joint Allocation Committees (JACs) for funding and survival.

In Imo State, for instance, governor Rochas Okorocha had, while refusing to organize local government elections, deployed members of the state legislature to local government areas as Caretaker Committee Chairmen. Also, in Osun State, the executive governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has maintained a tight hold on the LGs, insising that the tier of government was an aberration.

Analysts are eager to see how the Supreme Court decision impacts on State/LG relationships, and the numerous outstanding LG elections in the country.

For the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC), the Supreme Court judgment serves as a litmus test for its avowed commitment to upholding the rule of law.