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Pay Lagos LG funds, AD, CNPP, Afenifere warn FG
SIMON IBE, Snr. Political Editor,
Bisiriyu Olaoye, Deputy News Editor and agency
report
DEPUTY Leader
of the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, Senator Ayo Fasanmi, has warned the
Federal Government to pay the Lagos State Government its withheld local
government allocations or face dire consequences.
Also, the National Publicity Secretary of
the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Prince Dayo Adeyeye, also said any refusal to
obey the ruling of the Supreme Court, which last week ordered the Federal
Government to release the allocations, would amount to an invitation of anarchy.
But Works Minister, Sen. Adeseye Ogunlewe
stressed that the judgement was not a loss to the Federal Government as
perceived in some quarters.
Both Fasanmi and Adeyeye spoke with
Daily Champion in separate interviews.
Senator Fasanmi said the PDP government
had been showing itself as a government that has little regard for the rule of
law or due process, stressing, however, that it cannot get away with the alleged
rigging of the 2003 general elections and believe that it can also trifle with
the ruling of the apex court on the release of the Lagos councils’ funds.
The elder statesman said for instance,
that the PDP state government in Oyo State has continued to refuse to swear in
the AD local government chairmanship candidate for Ibarapa local government,
despite his declaration by the Election Tribunal as the winner of the election.
He warned that for a government whose
President is also the chairman of the African Union (AD) and which is trying to
enthrone democracy and the rule of law in other countries of the continent, the
party’s attitude towards court rulings was deplorable.
"Those who love PDP should advise them to
obey the ruling of the apex court. That’s the only path of honour," Fasanmi
stressed.
Adeyeye, however, said any attempt to
resist paying Lagos State local governments their allocations would amount to a
subversion of democracy and therefore an invitation to enemies of democracy to
take advantage of the situation.
"Once they do that, government would begin
to lose credibility and legitimacy because the ruling of the Supreme Court was
unambiguous," he said, warning that "I hope they wouldn’t dare to go to that
level where, because they are fighting one man, they would be ready to destroy
the whole system."
Sen. Ogunlewe insisted to the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos that the state government had no
choice but to revert to the old 20-local government structure.
He said that the constitution recognised
only the 20 local government councils in Lagos into which democratic elections
had been conducted.
"Let’s have only 20 chairmen and 245
councillors who must obtain the mandate of the people; there’s no other way
forward," he said.
"The law establishing 57 local governments
has been said to be uncompleted, so we still have 20 councils and the PDP will
participate in elections to the 20 councils," he added.
He said it was also a victory for the
President, adding that the judgment "must be balanced out."
"It said the president cannot withhold
allocations, but also said the councils must be properly constituted and in this
case, the court said they are inchoate," Ogunlewe added.
He insisted that the judgment was not a
loss to the Federal Government.
On her part, Chief (Mrs) Oluremi
Adiukwu-Bakare, Lagos State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy
Affairs said President Olusegun Obasanjo should respect the Supreme Court
judgment and release funds due to the state.
Adiukwu-Bakare told the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) at the weekend in Lagos that she had confidence that the
President would still release the funds.
"It is a victory for Lagos and even for
the President also as it has shown that he had allowed the court to do their job
and had gone through the process with patience," Adiukwu-Bakare said.
She stated that it was a victory for
constitutional democracy and assured Lagosians that there were better times
ahead with the release of the funds.
Federal Government in April refused to
release the Lagos councils’ allocation from the Federation Account to the state
government, arguing that it would only recognise the 20 council areas listed in
the 1999 constitution.
In 2002, Lagos legislature created 37 new
council areas to raise the number to 57, and in the process obliterated the 20
listed in the constitution, an action which President Obasanjo challenged.
Meanmwhile, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP)
has condemned the eight-man committee on National Dialogue set up last week by
President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing it as sudden and whimsical.
ANPP made the condemnation just as the
Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) hailed last Friday’s Supreme
Court judgemenet on the withholding of allocations of Lagos local governments,
urging President Obasanjo to apologise to government and people of the state.
The Commmittee on National Dialogue headed
by Gov. Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna State was mandated to work our a framework as
well as modalities for a national talkshop.
But in a statement yesterday, ANPP said
that the manner the committee was constituted did not convey seriousness and
commitment, adding that "the job of the committee appears to be shrouded in
mystery and unwarranted haziness."
The statement signed by the Acting
National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Alhaji Ismaila Sani and made
available to Daily Champion yesterday in Lagos, asked: "What does the
government really mean by "National Dialogue?" and who will dialogue on what?"
"The terms of reference of the committee
wasn’t helpful. Besides, the composition of the committee is too
unrepresentative — made up as it is of exclusively PDP (Peoples Democratic
Party) stalwarts and known faces within the corridors of power. This conveys the
impression that the dialogue envisaged is merely grand deception aimeds to
divert attention from the sufferings and privation ravaging the land unabated.
"We in the ANPP reject any talkshop of
whatever description and convened under whatever guise which does not take
cognisance of the plurality and variegated interests and views in the nation,"
the party said.
Advising the PDP government to tread
cautiously so as not to plunge the country into unnecessary controversy or
conflagration, ANPP alleged that it was aware of centrifusal forces, extremist
and nihilist groups "lurking around the polity ready to bare their fangs and
raise ferment in the name of one agitation or the other.
"Also, certainly the PDP knows that most
of the issues to be deliberated by the proposed dialogue can only be competently
tackled by the legislature - particularly the National Assembly; the party
stated.
In another development, CNPP has described
as victory for federalism, last Friday’s supreme court judgement which ruled in
favour of Lagos State government over the withholding of the councils’
allocations.
In a statement signed by its secretary
general Mazi Okwu, CNPP called on Obasanjo "to tender unreserved apologies to
the government and people of Lagos State particularly the hapless local
government workers who he deprived of their legitimate earnings for nearly one
year now".
The CNPP also urged the National Assembly
to pass the necessary consequential amendments "to give officially to any local
governments created by any state after undergoing all the processes enunciated
by the constitution".
While calling for the revisit of local governments as an
integer for revenue allocation, the CNPP urged President Obasanjo to enter into
"a solemn undertaking to desist from further abrupt and unconstitutional
activities by taking the law into his own hands".
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