Lawyer Prays Court To Sack Lagos Council Administrators

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Tope Alabi, has approached a Federal High Court in Lagos, asking it to sack the 57 sole administrators appointed by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to oversee the affairs of the 57 local government areas in the state. Ambode had in June appointed the sole administrators. But Alabi, in his suit, argued that the appointment of sole administrations over the LGAs was a violation of the provisions of the 1999 constitution. He claimed that with the appointment, the governor had violated the political rights of the people of Lagos State preserved by the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to the lawyer, under the constitution, LGAs represent the third tier of government and they must be administered by duly elected chairmen and councilors. Alabi contended that Ambode could not simply appoint sole administrators over LGAs in Lagos when LGAs were not parastatals or boards. Also joined as respondents in the suit are the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission. The plaintiff is urging the court to restrain the RMAFC from disbursing the funds due to the LGAs to the governor or anyone acting under the governor’s authority until the LGAs election had been conducted and chairmen had been elected. The lawyer also sought a court order directing the respondents to account for all the monies so far disbursed to the LGAs. Source: The Punch.