The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has denounced Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo’s alleged contempt for court rulings pertaining to the state’s local government chairmen.
Anthony Aziegbemi, the chairman of the Edo PDP chapter, stated that the letter from the governor regarding the 18 local government chairmen who had previously been suspended was unlawful and unsupportable. Aziegbemi claimed in a Saturday interview with Arise News that the Supreme Court had already declared section 10 (1), upon which Governor Okpebholo had relied, to be invalid.
He contended that the governor disregarded a ruling from the High Court that addressed the use of both Section 10(1) and Section 20 of the Constitution.
“First, it has to be made very clear, that letter in the first instance was an illegal letter. That letter shouldn’t have been written in the first instance if the governor knew what he was doing because as at the time he wrote that letter, the Chief Judge of Edo state had given a ruling that section 10(1) of the Edo state local government law has been annulled and repealed by the judgement of the supreme court. So he has no business writing that letter in the first instance.
“The Assembly in their own naivety I would say, didn’t rely on that section that he premised his letter on. They relied on Section 20 which talks about suspension. It is after that resolution by the House of Assembly that all hell has been let loose in Edo State,” he said.
The Edo State PDP Chairman decried that amid rulings by High Court, Supreme Court and condemnation of the suspension by Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, the state government was still forging ahead to implement the suspension.
Aziegbemi mentioned the party would be heading to court to press contempt of court against all persons connected with flouting the court orders.
He stated that the local government chairmen who were elected could not be impeached or removed by the state government or the state’s House of Assembly.
“You cannot dissolve the local government councils because they were elected by the people, Edo citizens. You cannot. The Supreme Court has said so, the Attorney General of the Federation has said so, and the Chief Judge of Edo State has said so.
“Even after the suspension, the council chairmen went back to court, and a judge in Edo State High Court 2, Honourable Justice Efe Ikponwonba, set aside the illegal suspension done by the House of Assembly. You would have thought that everybody with some level of conscience or sense would stop at that, but no. Even after the High Court judge gave his judgment, that was when the whole matter snowballed into what we are now witnessing in Edo State, where one councillor, two councillors, led by the police and the DSS, go into a council hall and claim they have impeached an elected local government chairman.”
“For us as a party, we think that there has never been any impeachment in this state. All the council chairmen that we elected and their vice, as far as we are concerned, they are still on their seats. We have directed that they should go back to their offices. Nobody has impeached them.”
“We are taking remedies. We need to try some people for contempt to court. We cannot allow this blazen act of illegality to happen in our dear state.”
“We just think that Nigerians should be aware of what is happening in Edo state. We think that what is happening, all the fingers point to the governor of the state, Monday Okpebholo, who has decided to disregard court judgements, to disrespect court judgements, to think that he can just wake up one morning and say I want this to happen and it will happen. We are telling him it will never happen in Edo state,” he said.
