Former local government chairmen and councilors who were sacked by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State in 2019, yesterday, cautioned the governor against involving Chief Justice of the Federation (CJN), Justice Kayode Ariwoola, on the case already determined by the Supreme Court.
This is just as they declared that they have lost 27 members to death as a result of the lack of money to take care of their health challenges owing to non-payment of their entitlements by Makinde.
Former Chairman, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in the state, Prince Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye, while addressing a press conference on behalf of other chairmen and councilors yesterday in Ibadan, said the governor is being petty to say on radio programme last weekend in Ibadan, that he would return to the Supreme Court before he would know whether to pay them or not.
The Supreme Court had in 2021 delivered judgement that the state government should pay the sacked Chairmen and Councilors their entitlements after sacking them but two years after, Governor Makinde only paid a part and refused to pay the balance.
Abass-Aleshinloye who said they hold the Supreme Court and the CJN in high esteem and that the apex court cannot reverse itself, maintaining that the integrity of the CJN is intact and that the governor should not drag the CJN into the matter already ruled upon by the Supreme Court.
He noted that the deceased former chairmen and councilors died because of the refusal of the governor to pay their entitlements amounting to N4.8 billion. He stated that the governor paid only N1.5 billion in two batches in 2021 and 2022 out of the N4.8 billion mandated the governor to pay by the Supreme Court.
He said: “This media briefing is very important as it concerned the recent media chat by the Governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde. We need to address some issues. We have no skeleton in our cupboard.
“Twenty-Seven of us that we are in this struggle together have died. I am talking about former chairmen and councilors. Some of them could not get money to take care of their health challenges and this resulted into their death. We have been in the struggle since four years ago.
“Our lawyer is taking every necessary step, we will explore all legal means. We have our own technical advisers too.
“Our entitlements amounted to N7.2 billion, they pleaded and we agreed on N4.8 billion in the interest of the state. They only paid N1.5 billion in two batches. One in 2021 and one in 2022. Since then, they have refused to pay.
“The Supreme Court gave the judgement the same day to Katsina State and Kastina have paid but our governor was saying he would return to Supreme Court on a matter already ruled upon by same court.
“This has nothing to do with either the CJN is from Oyo State or not but it is about constitutional issue, and we are going to employ all constitutional means to a logical conclusion.”
