Scores of councillors from the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) of Ogun on Thursday protested their suspension by the resolution recently passed by the State House of Assembly.
The protesters, carrying placards with different inscriptions in front of the Assembly complex, also prevented some of the assembly members from entering the premises with their cars, thereby forcing them to walk through.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there was heavy presence of security personnel within and around the assembly complex to prevent breakdown of law and order.
The Assembly had on May 31 passed a resolution urging the state government to immediately dissolve all chairmen and members of statutory boards and parastatals, having been paid their severance allowance by the immediate past administration.
The lawmakers, through a resolution, equally suspended political functionaries in all LGAs and LCDAs in the State.
Consequently, it directed all political office holders to hand over to the Head of Local Government Administration in their respective councils and LCDAs.
Speaking with newsmen, the spokesperson of the aggrieved councillors, Mr Azeez Oyedele, described the suspension of the lawmakers as unnecessary; particularly at the beginning of a new administration in the state.
Oyedele, who noted that the tenure of the political office holders of the council areas would expire in December 2019, urged the lawmakers to urgently pass another resolution to reverse their decision in order to promote healthy democratic rule in the state.
“We were able to see the Speaker, Mr Suraj Adekunbi, but we are not pleased with the way he addressed us.
“They did not have the power to suspend us.
“If the National Assembly cannot dissolve the state assembly, how can the state assembly suspend the local government legislative arms and the chairmen?
“This 8th legislature tenure will be over in another 24 or 48 hours, why are they passing this kind of resolutions at this late hour? We want them to reverse the purported resolution,” he said.
Addressing the protesters, the Speaker said that the resolution was not meant to witch-hunt anyone, but to give chance for investigation into the alleged misappropriation of public funds and abuse of office by some of them.
Adekunbi explained that the legislative action of the Assembly, which resulted to the passage of a resolution dissolving the local government political functionaries in the previous week, was done in the best interest of the people and rule of law.
Meanwhile, a peace meeting was held behind closed doors among representatives of the aggrieved Councillors, members of the assembly, the State Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, and Commander of the 35 Artillery Brigade command, Alamala, Abeokuta, Brig-Gen. Olaniyi Olatunde.
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