Group Slams Lagos Assembly Over Proposed Bill To Regulate Local Govt Administration

A Civil Society Organisation, the Lagos People’s Assembly, has faulted the plans of the state House of Assembly to regulate local government administration.

Speaking during a protest at the House of Assembly on Monday, the leader of the group, Shina Loremikan, said the new bill before the House on local government administration is against the ruling of the Supreme Court on local government autonomy.

Loremikan said if the House is not comfortable with the position of the Supreme Court on local government autonomy, they should approach the apex court to review its ruling.

He said: “The Supreme Court says there should be autonomy for local government, which means if any local government chairman does anything wrong, he/she can only be disciplined and sanctioned by the arm of the local government that does legislation, which are the councillors not the state House of Assembly.

“When the councillors address the problem of the chairman, they will communicate to the state House of Assembly but for the state House of Assembly to sit and give query to a local government chairman contrary to the position of the Supreme Court.

“Likewise, the National Assembly cannot sanction a governor or a Speaker of the state House of Assembly because they are independent. Only the state House of Assembly addresses any problem the governor has created and we are also saying if there is a bill to review local government law in Lagos State, it has to be open to the public.

“And anybody who is not pleased with the position of the Supreme Court judgement, they can go back to the Supreme Court to ask it to reverse itself and Lagos State cannot be an exemption. Local government autonomy came through struggle and it is not a struggle of one year.”

On his part, the group’s spokesperson, Kola Abe, said it is unconstitutional for the House to amend Local Government Law in the state to control affairs of the council areas.

Abe said: “The Supreme Court has said that there should be autonomy for every local government, I see no reason why Lagos State House of Assembly would want to contradict or contravene what the Supreme Court has said.

“We are saying no to it and we will not allow them to amend and take control of the local government because Lagos State is not different from other states in Nigeria. This is not a banana republic. We are saying that the laws of the land must be obeyed.

“We are saying that Lagos State House of Assembly should not be lawbreakers because they cannot be lawmakers and at the same time councillors and chairmen of local governments. It is not possible and we will not allow that as long as we will not allow the National Assembly to take over your responsibilities as State Assembly so also we will not allow you to take over the responsibilities of the local government chairmen.

“Let the House of Assembly of Lagos State perform their duty as House of Assembly and let the local government chairmen perform their duty as local government. Let there be a chairman and a councillor and let the councillors take the responsibility of disciplining the chairmen.

It is a very simple issue, there is autonomy for the local government and the lawmakers obey it to the letter. From all indications, we discovered that the Lagos State House of Assembly is trying to abrogate itself into playing the role of councillors in the local governments and we are saying no to this because it is unjust. And injustice to one is an injustice to all.”

Despite the protest, the House has suspended the chairman of the Alimosho Local Government Area, Jelili Sulaimon. The House claimed that the chairman failed to adhere to its directives over mismanagement of public funds. It also said the suspension was in line with relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution as amended.