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By Gidigba Group
Gidigba, a Benin-based socio-political organization has called on the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to act beyond warnings on newspapers and drag governors fighting local government autonomy before the Supreme Court.
"Whereas we commend the concerns the AGF has shown, by way of re-echoeing the dangerous consequences of illegally dissolving, taking over Councils, it appears however, that your voice, warnings are not achieving the desired goal as Councils in Nigeria, Edo State, for instance, are still inactive and dysfunctional following the governor's unlawful interference in that tier of government".
Gidigba charged the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, to practically institute a suit against any governor opposing Supreme Court judgement in his State and drag that governor before the Supreme Court.
"We commend the genuine concerns Your Honour has shown, even though such concerns may have been undermined by some governors; there is need for the laws of our land to be obeyed so as to prevent a breakdown of law and order; to this end, we ask you to practically institute suits against governors at war with local government autonomy, they must be seen dragged before the Supreme Court, and the institutions of State, Police, EFCC, ICPC, others, must be compelled to execute extant court orders to maintain status quo in Councils".
"We are very much aware of the difficulty in getting our people to comply, we believe that is the same challenge you may be facing, there is need to however, charge State institutions to do the needful to truly free local governments from the apron strings of State governors", the group said.
"The local government crisis in Osun which has led to loss of lives would have been avoided if practical measures were taken promptly; today, we are head over heels to restore peace, dishing out threats on newspapers and other media platforms, because lives have been lost, this shows our unseriousness and lack of determination in getting critical things done; the tragedy in Osun and the crisis in Edo could have been avoided if the right thing was done on time"
"Honourable Minister, Sir, you must go beyond paper talks, tv presentations, symposia and conferences, we want to see you instituting legal suits against governors who have declared war on local government autonomy, a classical example is the Edo State governor, who has rendered local government dysfunctional following his unlawful interference".
"We don't want to believe that you want people killed in Edo, like Osun, before you start making press statements and organizing public functions to re-echoe the consequences of illegally dissolving, taking over local government Council", please act now, and your action must be decisive, result-driven and must be seen to restore decency, law and order in local government Council", Gidigba added.
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