Osun LG Administration: Aregbesola’s Appointment of Council Managers, A Fraud – Activist

A human rights activist and Chairman, Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS), Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman has described the appointment of Council Managers to man the constitutionally recognized thirty (30) Local Government and the thirty –one(31) newly created moribund Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) in the State as a fraud of highest order which was initiated by the State governor, Mr. Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola to continue siphoning the resources of the local government into personal purse.

However, the immediate past Head of Service (HoS) in the State, Elder Segun Akinwusi declared that Governor Aregbesola came to the State to milk its meager resources dry as their leader in Lagos deed, just as he stated that it was ungodly and satanic for Aregbesola to owe workers’ salaries of many months in the State, recalling how Aregbesola and his cohorts siphoned the meager resources of the State through phantom projects like ‘Tablet of Knowledge, abandoned roads and so on.

Speaking at the weekend during the 1st symposium lecture with a theme “Osun State Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, organized by the State based Civil Society Organization (CSO),the Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State(CSCEOS) to mark a year brutal attack of the peaceful Protesters by the groomed political thugs of Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, popularly called “State Boys”, during the Emancipation rally in support of a courageous Woman Judge of the State High Court, Justice Olamide Folahanmi Oloyede, over her 39pages Petition Letter to the State House of Assembly, calling for credible investigation into the alleged criminal mismanagement of Osun State public funds by Mr. Aregbesola and 18 years remembrance of the death of the acclaimed winner of June 12,1993 Presidential election, Late Chief MKO Abiola, held at the NUJ Press Centre,Osogbo,Osun State capital

Comrade Sulaiman who recalled that it was a pathetic on the fateful day of Tuesday 7th of July, 2015, when the security agents that was charged with the responsibility of protecting the lives of armless citizens, were took to their heels and gave chance to the illegal State Boys to have field day in disrupting the peaceful rally where participants including members of Nigeria Union of Pensioners sustained various degree of injuries, insisting that the group would ensure that Mr. Aregbesola was brought to justice for wrongly dipping his hand into the public funds of the State, particularly, the local government funds, even after leaving office in 2018.

CSCEOS Chief who further stressed that the singular action of Aregbesola has breached the Oath of office and Code of Conduct which eroded the grassroot people of the State of even development by defeating the main objectives of the local government administration in our democratic system to bring government nearer to the people and local participation in the governance of the country, adding that “ Aregebsola’s monocratic government is being run in his personal interest not in the interest of the masses of our people and the local government funds are not being released to them and there is no due processes as well as check and balances within the executive mechanism”.

According to him, “You will recall that the essence of government is to make life better for the citizens than it met them but reverse is the case of Osun State, particularly, in the local government areas of the State, as Aregbesola has dashed the hope of Osun people in all sector of the economy that democracy is the government of the masses that could give them better quality of life.

“We want to assure the good people of Osun State that Mr. Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola will be brought to justice for wrongly dipped his hand into the public funds of local government, even, after leaving office in 2018.The recent appointment of “COUNCIL MANAGER” to man the local government areas of the State is a fraud which must be stopped and it is against the section 7 of the 1999 constitution, as amended and we see the Aregbesola’s action on local government administration in the State as illegal, unlawful, aberration, abomination, anathema, unconstitutional, satanic, undemocratic and crime against God and humanity.

“By the provision of Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is guaranteed. Any other thing other than this will be in a violation of the constitution. As such, Section 1 (3) of the said constitution will become operative to the effect that any law passed by any state introducing appointive governance in the local government will be considered inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution, and to every extent of the inconsistency it is void”.

Supporting his argument with the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Eze v. Governor of Abia State (2014) LPELR-23276 (SC) has held that “The frequent dissolution of local governments and appointment of caretaker councils by state governors in this country is not only illegal but highly undemocratic.

Elder Akinwusi who was the Chairman of the event in his opening remarks, urged the good people of the state to resist the anti-masses policies of the present administration in the State by standing up to fight for their right, maintaining that Aregbesola was not for development of the State than to carted away her resources to Lagos State.

In his goodwill message, a political leader in the State, Alhaji Alidu Tiamiyu, advised the people of the State to wake up from their slumber by preparing to sent Aregbesola and his co-travelers away from the shore of the State, explaining that Aregbesola has dragged the State backward in all ramifications and urged the people to take the destiny from their hands.

Speaking further on the death of late Abiola, Sulaiman who doubles as Executive Chairman, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), thrown the group weight behind the position of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), calling on the Federal Government to immortalize Abiola for his role in restoration of democracy in Nigeria, condemning President Muhamamdu Buhari for his failure to recognize Chief MKO Abiola who paid the supreme sacrifice with uncommon democratic courage for the enthronement of current democratic experiment in Nigeria.

Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman,
(Revolutionary Alfa)
Chairman