Osun L.G Administration: Appointment of Council Managers, a fraud -Activist

…… As Akinwusi says, Aregbesola plans to milk Osun dry
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 did, 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 ready 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.