Court reinstates 21 Kogi sacked LG chairmen

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on Friday reinstated 21 local government council chairmen and their councilors who were relieved of their jobs by Governors Idris Wada of Kogi State.

Delivering judgment in the appeal, Justice Mustapha Mohammed of the Appeal Court set aside the judgment of the trial court.

Justice Mohammed held that the appeal brought by the appellants had merit and should be allowed.

He ordered the Kogi State government to reinstate the sacked council chairmen and their councilors who were dissolved in 2014 before the expiration of their tenure.

The trial judge, Justice Alaba Omolaye- Ajileye, in his judgment ordered the local government chairmen to hand over to the most senior directors in each of the 21 local government areas of the state with immediate effect.

A Kogi State High Court sitting in Koton Karfe on December 9, 2014, nullified the May 4, 2013 local government elections that produced the present 21 local government chairmen.

The court had said the sack of the local government officials was based on the improper composition of the state Independent Electoral Commission (KOSIEC) and declared its activities as null and void.

The judgment was challenged by government at the appeal court.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) had dragged the state government, KOSIEC and the council chairmen before the court, contesting the composition of KOSIEC and subsequent conduct of the local government elections in the state by the former Chairman who was allegedly a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 

Justice Ajileye had explained that the actions of KOSIEC, its chairman and other members were contrary to section 200(1) of 1999 Constitution as amended.

He stressed that the composition of KOSIEC was unconstitutional, illegal and void.

Justice Ajileye explained that the section of the constitution was designed by the lawmakers to promote the principle of fairness, independence and transparency, stressing that it was also to express the notion of neutrality and these are not abstract notions as the notion of independence.

  “As an umpire, KOSIEC must not only be neutral, but manifestly be seen to be neutral.

“Given the neutrality of these notions of neutrality and transparency, embedded in the work and function of KOSIEC, it will be inappropriate to interpret section 200(1) of the Constitution as amended in a way suggesting that the chairman of such commission can go completely out of his way, not only to join a political party but proceed to contest the primaries of an election under the umbrella of a political  party and come back to organise an election involving his party and other political parties as it happened in this case.