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LGs funds: Obasanjo promised
to obey court orders, says Tinubu
By Tunde Abatan, Shola Ogunode
(Lagos) and Emma Gbemudu (Yenagoa)
Governor of Lagos state, Bola
Ahmed Tinubu, has given the assurance that President Olusegun Obasanjo
will obey to the letter, the ruling of the Supreme Court on allocations
meant for the states� local governments.
He stated this at the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, while speaking with journalists,
Tuesday, while seeing off Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to
Abuja.
�I know the federal government
believes in the rule of law. President Obasanjo has stated categorically
to the nation several times that if the Supreme Court asks him to pay, he
will pay�, he said.
Tinubu remarked further that
the onus is now on President Obasanjo as the leader of Nigeria�s
democratic government, to prove that he is the number one enforcer of the
constitution. He stated further that the judgement passed by the Supreme
Court is the best constitutional judgement he has ever
envisaged.
The Governor also said having
received what he went to the court for, it is now left for the National
Assembly to do their part, by enlisting the new local government areas in
the constitution.
Meanwhile, the Conference of
Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Bayelsa chapter, has asked President
Olusegun Obasanjo to comply with the verdict of the apex court by
releasing the statutory allocation due Lagos State.
The call is coming on the
heels of a commendation by the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the
Southwest to the nations apex court for the landmark
judgment.
The south west AD at its
meeting held in Ibadan issued a communiqu� signed by the National Vice
Chairman of the Chief Bisi Akande faction pledged its support and
expressed implicit confidence in Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and wish him further
successes in his struggle against tyranny.
The CNPP welcomed the verdict
of the Supreme Court as a landmark judgement that has reinforced the
belief that the apex court remains the last hope of the common
man.
In a statement in Yenagoa,
chairman of CNPP, Mr. Misiki Ebikibina, said the apex court�s judgement
had put to rest the dictatorship style of the nation�s President.
He said: �The Conference of
Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) in Bayelsa State, hails the judgment of
the Supreme Court the seizure by President Olusegun Obasanjo of
allocations from the federation account to local governments in Lagos
State, as a landmark judgement.
On the amendment of section
308 of the 1999 constitution, Ebikibina hailed the move but regretted that
such a move was coming at a time when the level of corruption and looting
was on the high side.
The CNPP chairman said: �The
amendment of section 308 of the 1999 Nigeria constitution to expunge the
immunity clause on officers or serving governors should be genuinely
initiated to fight corruption and not a yardstick for selective
prosecution and political intimidations or
submission�.
Ebikibina explained that CNPP
was committed to eradicate poverty and corruption, thus they believe this
battle would be fought collectively through the confines of the law with
honest and transparency.
He called for a change of
attitude towards the incessant corrupt practices among the three tiers of
government and serving government at all levels.
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