…Faults Oyo, Katsina dissolution of LGA chairpersons, councillors
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld an earlier judgment of the Court of Appeal which okayed the deregistration of the National Unity Party and 73 others.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), last year deregistered the political parties over their inability to win any election during the 2019 general elections.
In the judgment, delivered by Justice China Nweze, the Supreme Court said the deregistration of NUP, one of the 74 parties, was done in line with the laws and compliance with the extant provisions of the Constitution and Electoral Act.
The Supreme Court, also yesterday, said the dissolution of the Local Governments Chairpersons and Councillors in Oyo and Katsina States, and their replacement with caretaker committees by Governors Seyi Makinde and Aminu Masari was illegal and unconstitutional.
According to the panel of Justices of the apex court, the Oyo State governor erred by dissolving all the elected council officials and replacing them with the caretaker committee and consequently set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Ibadan, which approved the sack of elected council chairpersons by the State governor.
The apex court, in a unanimous judgment by a five-man panel of Justices, held that governor Makinde acted beyond his powers when on his assumption of office on May 29, 2019, he sacked the Chairmen of the 33 Local Government Areas, as well as 35 Local Council Development Areas in the State.
The apex court stressed that no governor has the constitutional power to illegally terminate the tenure of democratically elected local government Chairmen and Councillors.
In a similar judgment, the apex court declared the dissolution of the duly elected Local government Council Chairmen under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari, as unlawful.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Adamu Jauro, the apex court consequently directed that the unlawfully dissolved council officials be paid all their entitlements from the date of their illegal dissolution to the date they were to vacate office.
