Oyo state local council chairmen under the late former Governor Abiola Ajimobi whose tenure were truncated by Governor Seyi Makinde in 2019 have advised the governor not to drag the well respected Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kayode Ariwoola into his illegality and lawlessness.
This disclosure was made by the 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 Councillors on Wednesday in Ibadan over the refusal of the Governor Makinde to pay them their entitlements after sacking them.
It could be recalled the Supreme Court has ruled in 2021 that Governor Makinde should pay the sacked Chairmen and Councillors their entitlements after sacking them but two years after, the governor only paid part and refused to balance up.
Abass-Aleshinloye said the governor is being petty to say on radio programme that he would return to Supreme court before he would know either to pay or not.
Answering questions either because CJN Ariwoola may influence the judgement because he is from Oyo State and an associate of the governor, Abass-Aleshinloye and his colleagues said they hold Supreme Court and the CJN in high esteem, and that Supreme Court can never reverse itself.
They maintained 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.
Abass-Aleshinloye declared that they have lost no fewer than twenty seven (27) members, noted that the deceases died as a result of the lack of money to take care of their health challenges owing to non-payment of their entitlements by Makinde.
Abass -Aleshinloye who flanked by other former ALGON members, said that the deceases among whom are former Chairmen and Councillors died because of the refusal of the governor to pay their entitlements amounting to N4.8b.
He maintained that the governor paid only N1.5b in two batches in 2021 and 2022 out of the N4.8b mandated the Governor to pay by the Supreme Court.
Abass -Aleshinloye added that the governor has refused to pay the balance as at the moment.
“This media breifing is very important as it concerned the recent media chart by Governor of Oyo state, Engineer Seyi Makinde. We need to address some issues. We have no skeleton in our cupboard.
“27 of us that we are in this struggle together have died. I am talking about former Chairmen and Councillors. 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 is N7.2b, they pleaded and we agreed on N4.8b in the interest of the state. They only paid N1.5 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 matter already ruled upon by same Court.
“This has nothing to do with CJN is either from Oyo state or not but it is about constitutional issue, and we are going to employ all constitutional means to a logical conclusion”.