PDP alleges contempt as Aiyedatiwa appoints council caretakers

The Ondo State Governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on Thursday, constituted transition committees for the 18 Local Government Areas and 33 Local Council Development Areas in the state.

The constitution of the committees for the LCDAs, however, generated controversy, as it violated the Ondo High Court order which nullified the 33 LCDAs created by the administration of the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.

On Thursday, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the November 16 governorship election, Mr Agboola Ajayi, condemned the action of the government in the creation of the transition committees, saying it was a violation of the court order.

The development came as the Supreme Court, on Thursday, granted autonomy to Local Government administration in the country and ruled that the allocation to states with undemocratically elected LG officials be withheld.

A statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Ebenezer Adeniyan, on Thursday, announced that the transition committees would be in charge of affairs of the LGs and LCDAs until the conduct of the election.

“The transition committees are to oversee the affairs of the LGs and LCDAs in the state until the local government election is held by the electoral body.

“Meanwhile, the state government is currently examining the concerns raised by some communities over the delineations carried out during the creation of the LCDAs, to make the necessary amendments. The appointment takes immediate effect.”

Condemning the development, Agbola said, “In law, as it is today, Ondo State has 18 local government areas, even though we felt that it’s illegal for any democratic institutions to appoint caretaker committee members.

“You will remember that the PDP went to court to say that we cannot appoint a caretaker committee, but you have to conduct an election so that the government can be very close to the grassroots.

“We expect them to conduct the election, but the next we saw was the notification of LCDAs and that was part of their inefficiency and leadership failure.

This morning (Thursday), we heard that they have appointed members of the caretaker committee to all the nullified 33 LCDAs and the 18 LG structures of Ondo State and we felt that we should call the attention of the good people of the state to it, maybe they don’t know that the Supreme Court has nullified the process.”

Agboola said with the Supreme Court judgment, governors should allow local government administration to be run by the people at the grassroots.

He said the government’s decision contradicted the ruling of the Supreme Court and amounted to contempt of court.