Daud Olatunji
The Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division in Oyo State, has issued a ruling prohibiting the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) from organising and supervising elections for the state’s 37 Local Council Development Authorities (LCDAs).
This decision follows an appeal filed by lawyer Oluwaseun Lawal against a previous judgement by Honourable Justice A.A. Akinyemi of the Ogun State High Court on May 20, 2020.
In the appeal marked CA/IB/292/2020, Lawal contested the legitimacy of the Local Council Development Areas created under the Local Government (Creation and Transitional Provisions Amendment) Law, 2016, by the Ogun State House of Assembly.
The respondents in the suit included the state governor, the government, the Attorney General, the State House of Assembly, and OSIEC.
Lawal’s central argument before the Appeal Court revolved around the interpretation of the 2016 Local Government Law.
He posited that the new local government areas could not legally function as LCDAs due to constraints set forth in Section 2, subsection 1, and Section 3 of the said law.
Lawal urged the court to determine whether the provisions of the 2016 law constitutionally authorised the state electoral commission to conduct elections for the 37 newly established LGAs.
The lawyer emphasised that the Ogun State electoral commission lacked the authority to recognize, organize, undertake, or supervise elections in the 37 LCDAs, which he described as “inchoate.”
Lawal pointed out that the 1999 constitution recognizes only 20 local governments in Ogun State, excluding the 37 newly created entities.
He sought a court declaration that the Ogun State Local Government (Creation and Transitional Provisions Amendment) Law, 2016, was unconstitutional, invalid, and null and void.
He argued that the law attempted to operationalize the 37 new local government areas as LCDAs without the requisite approval of the National Assembly, as mandated by Section 8(5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In addition to nullifying the 2016 LG law, Lawal requested the court to restrain the respondents from interacting with or allocating funds to the 37 newly created local government areas or conducting elections therein.
He maintained that these areas remained constitutionally unrecognised and that OSIEC, being a constitutional creation with expressly defined powers, could not legally conduct elections in these jurisdictions until the National Assembly accorded them constitutional recognition.
Lawal further noted that continuing to allocate public funds to the 37 inchoate LGAs would be illegal and against public policy.
He cited a Supreme Court ruling that declared the LGAs inoperative until the National Assembly fulfilled its constitutional responsibility to recognize them.
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