After court verdict, Gov Akeredolu orders all LG chairmen to vacate seats immediately

Wasting no time after Friday’s court order sacking the 18 local government chairmen in the state, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has ordered them to immediately vacate their offices.

The Governor directed that all persons occupying the positions of chairmen and councilors in all the 18 local government areas of Ondo State are to vacate such offices, forthwith.

The Ondo State high Court in Akure, had on Friday dissolved the local government executives in the eighteen local government areas of the state.

Justice Adesola Sidiq who delivered the judgment held that the Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) led by Prof Olugbenga Ige erred by omitting the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) on the election ballot paper.

Read also: Akeredolu deepens Ondo Assembly Speakership crisis

Justice Sidiq said the April 23, 2016 election was “in violation of the mandatory provisions of Sections 1(1) (3), 40, 42, 287 of the Constitution Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, and Articles 2, 3(1) (2), 10(1), 11 and 13 (1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap. A9, the Laws of Federation, 2004″.

Akeredolu in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Segun Ajiboye has therefore directed the LG executives to hand over, immediately, all government properties in their possession to the Director of Local Government Administration in their respective local governments.

The statement read in part, that “The State Government hereby enjoins all citizens to remain law-abiding as this directive is solely based on strict adherence to the order of the court and our unyielding insistence on observing the rule of law at all times and in all situations.

“Elections into all the Local Government Areas shall be conducted as directed by the court as soon as possible”, the governor explained.

 

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