Oyo Council chairmen to wait longer as Appeal Court reserves judgement in LG dissolution suit

The Ibadan Division of the Court of Appeal on Thursday reserved judgment in an appeal before it by the Oyo State Government to challenge the order of another court restraining it from dissolving the 33 local governments and 35 Local Council Development Areas in the state.

The state government had appealed against the judgment delivered by Justice Aderonke Aderemi in May 6, 2019, restraining the state government from dissolving the elected 68 chairmen.

However, Governor Seyi Makinde, on assumption of office on May 29, 2019, appealed against the judgment and dissolved the local government chairmen in the state.

The three-member panel of appeal judges, chaired by Justice Jimi Bada, on Thursday, reserved the judgment after hearing arguments of counsels from both sides in the suit.

Counsel for the Oyo State Government, Kunel Kalejaye, SAN, said the lower court had no jurisdiction to hear the case.

Kalejaiye argued that the chairmen filed the suit at the lower court based on the rumour that Makinde would dissolve the council executives after being sworn in as governor on May 29, 2019, urging the court to dismiss the judgment of the lower court and uphold the appeal.

In his own submission, counsel for the respondents, Yusuf Ali, SAN, said the action could not be termed as immature because the law allows a person to approach the court when such person noticed that his right was being threatened.

According to Ali, only an irresponsible person would wait for his eye to be plucked after noticing that such was about to happen.

He prayed the the court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the judgment of the lower court in order not to allow such precedent.