The new governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has sacked all the Caretaker Chairmen of the 16 Local Government Areas and the 19 newly created Local Council Development Areas in the state. Also dissolved are all boards of government corporations, agencies and parastatals constituted by the immediate past Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. Fayose, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, directed all the caretaker chairmen to immediately hand over to the Director of Administration of their respective council.
The dissolution takes immediate effect. “All the local government and local council development areas’ caretaker chairmen are to hand over to the Directors of Administration of the existing local government areas. “The Directors of Administration are to take inventory of the property handed over to them,” the statement read.
Fayemi, the former governor of the State did not hold any local government election throughout his tenure of four years. The State High Court nullified the composition of the then State Independent National Electoral Commission which would have organized the election because it was filled with members of Fayemi’s ACN.
In his inaugural speech on Thursday, Fayose vowed not to fund the LCDAs with the Federal Allocations for the 16 councils listed in the 1999 Constitution. He said “Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) clearly spells the authorities and procedures for the creation of local government. “The sudden and shoddy balkanisation of the existing 16 local government areas by the immediate past administration under the guise of creating local council development areas is being challenged in the court of law.
Our party considers the hurried creation of the 19 LCDAs, after incumbent (Fayemi) lost the June election, as gratuitous afterthought of a bad loser. It smacks of political subterfuge masterminded in utmost bad faith.
But at the moment, the matter is sub judice, and as law abiding citizens, our government will not do anything that will render the decision of the court nugatory.
However, pending the pronouncement of the court, our administration shall be guided by the provisions of Section 3, Part 1, First Schedule of 1999 Constitution on the list of local governments in Nigeria in the allocation of resources to that tier of government.