A former speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Mikhail Alarape, has faulted the approach employed by Governor Seyi Makinde in dissolving the state’s local government councils.
Makinde had dissolved the executives of the 33 local governments as well as those of the 35 local council development areas (LCDAs) on assumption of office last week. He conveyed the decision through a statement by his Chief of Staff (CoS), Chief Bisi Ilaka.
Reviewing the development in an interview with reporters on the occasion of his 50th birthday, Alarape, who is a lawyer, said Makinde should have approached the House of Assembly in dissolving the councils instead of doing it through executive power without recourse to the assembly.
Alarape noted that though the process that produced the chairmen and members of the councils was arguably faulty, he insisted that correcting it through another wrong process was not the best.
He said: “Once the councils are democratically elected in accordance with the constitution, it is not even sacrosanct that a governor dissolves the local government councils. What the present government did is a bit political and emotional because the truth must be told. With due respect to the governor, to issue a statement to dissolve local councils is not the best. I did not expect it, and that is my personal view. Two wrongs do not make a right. Everybody knows that the local governments’ running in this state is a one-man affair. In recent times, there was no election in the real sense of it. It was a selection, even within the party…”
On the incoming Ninth Assembly in Oyo State, Alarape advised Makinde to allow the assembly functions independently by following the example of former Governor Rashidi Ladoja. He said as the Speaker, Ladoja did not restrict the activities of the assembly while he served as Speaker.
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