Newspapers: Court bars Ondo council chiefs from secretariats

 

Court bars Ondo council chiefs from secretariats
From Julius Alabi, Akure

AN Akure High Court yesterday restrained the 18 local council chairmen and their councillors from parading themselves as council chairmen and members of their Legislative arm pending the determination of the case before it.

Justice Nelson Adeyanju, while ruling on the interlocutory application brought by the state governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, through his counsel, Mr. John Baiyeshea (SAN), said the plaintiffs -chairmen and the councillors - and their agents are also restrained from administering or acting in any other form or disrupting activities of the 18 local councils in the state until the case is determined.

Baiyeshea had already told the court that his client, Mimiko, had written an undertaking that he would not constitute any caretaker committee until the determination of the case.

Mimiko had on March 4, 2009 dissolved the executive and legislative arms of all the 18 councils on the ground of a court ruling restraining the former administration of Dr. Olusegun Agagu from conducting council elections of December 15, 2007 which brought the council members in.

However, the 18 council chairmen acting on an "Order" from Abuja forcefully entered into their secretariats accompanied by fully armed policemen.

Adeyanju said: "In view of the undertaking entered into by the governor, no caretaker committee nominees should be constituted or elected to run the affairs of the council until the case is determined.

Baiyeshea, while moving a motion for the interlocutory application to restrain the chairmen from taking any step towards take-over of the council secretariats by forcefully, said their actions, if permitted, were capable of disrupting the smooth running and administration of the councils pending the final hearing of the substantial suit.

According to him: "We have filed a reply to the counter-affidavit of the plaintiffs and we rely on the affidavit in support and we want the court to determine whether the chairmen are justified on the legal processes that brought them to office. We also refer your lordship to Paragraphs 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of our affidavit.

"Also, the status quo we are saying is that the dissolution has taken place and the plaintiffs have ceased to be in office since March 4, 2009 which they have accepted. The legal right of the governor is based on Section 5 (2) and 7 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria," he said.

Mimiko's counsel added that there was no evidence that local government workers were instigated by the state government and that there was no place in their affidavit that they have been functioning in their offices since the dissolution of the councils.

"My lord, the status quo is that they are out of office but trying to force themselves into the office. And since they have joined issues in the court, they should not have done any extra-judicial activities by forcing themselves in office again," he noted.

Baiyeshea argued that "the balance of conveniences favour the plaintiffs in view of the fact that the workers have stayed away since their action and we cannot sacrifice all the 18 local governments for just 18 persons who stand to be compensated for any damage if the case goes in their favour. My Lord, we have entered into an undertaking if at the end of the day, they are favoured."

The plaintiffs' counsel, Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye (SAN), said he agreed with the total position of the application, saying that the interlocutory application was what the defendant wanted the court to determine and nothing more.

He argued that the defendant could not restrain the council bosses from parading themselves as council chairmen unless the governor agreed that they still occupied that position in which they were to be restrained.

"Our argument is that the status quo as known to law, as, with peaceful state of affairs before the litigation and not unlawfully contravene state of affairs before the litigation. My counter- submission is that the constitution did not give the governor a blank arbitrary power to dissolve the councils. The governor under the constitution must act in accordance with the law," he added.

He, therefore, urged the court to discountenance the interlocutory injunction sought by the governor and strike it out accordingly.

In his ruling, Justice Adeyanju said the defendant (Mimiko) was right in his application and thereby restrained the councils' chiefs from parading themselves as chairmen pending the determination of the substantive suit.

He however adjourned the case to April 29, 2009 for the hearing of the substantive suit.

…and Gani got his honour

 

From here

Sometime last year, the Senate of the  Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA), Ondo State, notified human rights activist Chief Gani Fawehinmi of its desire to confer on him an honourary doctorate degree. The ace lawyer, not known to be keen on awards, many of which he had dismissed as frivolous, accepted this particular one, as it came from his home state.

But, on September 8, 2008, the Senate sent a letter to Fawehinmi, informing him of its decision to withdraw the award. Smelling political intrigues from the office of the then Visitor and Governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Agagu, Fawehinmi lambasted the man in his characteristic no-nonsense manner. He equally dismissed Agagu’s feeble attempts to exonerate himself. In support, many Nigerians condemned Agagu for the withdrawal.

Two weeks ago, the new Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, led many dignitaries at a special convocation of the institution to confer on Gani the same award that was earlier denied him. It was, a time for joy and “a sense of what will be will be,” to use the words of the Chancellor to the University, Oba Gbadebo Bajowa, the Rebuja of Osooro, at the two-day event.  The first day, Wednesday, witnessed the convocation lecture, delivered by Dr. Oladipo Fashina, a former national chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (OAU). 

This was followed by a stage play, “Rage of corpses”, performed by Theatre Arts students of the University of Benin, Edo State (UNIBEN). Among those in attendance was the wife of a former governor of Ondo State, Deaconess Adetutu Adefarati, who represented Mimiko. Speaking to CAMPUSLIFE after the play, she described Gani as “a worthy son of Ondo State as well as an epitome of emancipation of the masses.” She was glad the university was honouring him.

On Thursday, the convocation proper, the campus was very rowdy as various groups and Labour Party supporters came to show solidarity with the awardee and the governor who was visiting the university town for the first time since his inauguration. In his speech, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Philip Abiodun, described Gani as “an erudite scholar, an accomplished legal icon and a philanthropist par-excellence.”
He added: “We are happy that the occasion of the award of the Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) honoris causa has come at last.”

For the Visitor, it was time to appreciate members of the community for standing by him through his travails at the courts while trying to retrieve his mandate. As soon as he entered the hall which was filled to capacity, with the outside overflowing as well, shouts of Iroko! Iroko!! rented the air. The same thing happened when he was to give his address, such that he had to plead for calm.
Mimiko said the state was proud to celebrate the awardee as he is a prophet to be celebrated in his home. He also described him as a role model for the younger generation.

Promising to “adequately fund AAUA as well as create a befitting infrastructural setting for it”, he urged students to make discipline their watchword. Mimiko commiserated with them on the recent death of six students in an auto accident. President of the West African Bar Association Mr. Femi Falana, who also addressed the convocation audience, said he was delighted the new governor recognised the contributions of Fawehinmi to the society. According to him, he had wanted to sue the institution when the award was earlier withdrawn.

Though Fawehinmi could not make it due to health reasons, he was represented by his first daughter, also a lawyer, Mrs. Basirat Fawehinmi-Biobaku. In her acceptance speech, she expressed gratitude to Mimiko for “giving to my father what was denied him by the former administration”.  She added that her father had donated books worth N5.5million to the university, in addition to two copies of the Weekly Law Report which will be donated weekly. She ended by requesting for prayers for her dad who is in England receiving treatment.

Many students, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, expressed happiness at what they unanimously described as the “righting of a great wrong done to a worthy son of the state by the Agagu administration.”
The former President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Olamide Nadeco, described Gani as the epitome of the struggle to improve the lot of the downtrodden in Nigeria.
There was, however, a side attraction. Some pre-degree students staged a protest, displaying placards asking the governor to come to their aid so that they would be admitted by the institution.

Rescuing Accident victims, the governor Mimiko way…

I was about popping out of my house, when someone brought my attention to this newsreport.

Also reported in the Guardian here

Governor Mimiko Rescues Accident Victims

Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, on Saturday night rescued three accident victims who were trapped in the wreckages of two Toyota Hiace buses involved in a head-on-collision.

The two commercial buses, a light blue Toyota Hiace bus with registration number ONDO AR737AKR, collided with a white Toyota Hiace with registration number: ONDO XF425NND at a sharp bend near the Owena dam bridge, leaving several people trapped.

Both buses were coming from opposite directions before they ran into each other at top speed.

A few minutes after the accident which, according to eye witnesses, occurred due to over speeding, the governor’s convoy, which was coming from Akure, the Ondo State capital, to the governor’s home town Ondo, got to the scene.

On sighting the accident, Mimiko ordered his convoy to stop while he came down and moved to the scene of the accident.

Dr. Mimiko ordered that they be taken in one of the cars in his convoy to the General Hospital, Ondo town which was closer to the scene of the accident than Akure.

And then the person quipped (paraphrasing) :

“ so typical, plays the caring-governor without any word, or action on the bigger and far more important task of analyzing why such accident happen so frequently, with a view to resolving or eliminating it…”

I couldn’t agree more

.

Now that Mimiko is king…

The politics of Ondo state,  over the last decade has not been much different.

The same characters, the same jingles  literarily fill the space at election time; Barely little movement in terms of developmental index. 

It would be interesting to see how he approaches the myriad of static problems facing the namespace – Ondo state.

Personally, I argue that the greater mass of the state’s citizen remains  broadly mis /dis informed. The state controlled media could do with a lot more freedom as to their capacity to educate and entertain. But that is minimal in terms of what must be handled with intense passion.

The core resource of the state remains in the hugely under-rated agricultural positives;- capacity to grow food, hugely undersubscribed.

Other pertinent task that would determine his government’s fate in the coming months is the so critical need to  re-organise a fundamentally “dead” government ( civil service). 

His ability to ensure that a sense of “going-to-work-to-actually-work '” is restored to the civil service (and ‘servants’ – that so colonial word)  is so central to any form of traction he may wish to build upon.

In terms of health services, the extent to which the state hospital could provide and sustain basic healthcare – with nurses not needing to frisk patients for the need of syringes – would also be crucial when the jury goes out.

Politically, the game  cannot be any clumsier. 

Mr Mimiko is an ex-PDP ex-AC  man by curriculum.  PDP embodies thuggery and in-your-face levels of thieving, crass corruption. 

Party politics in namespace Nigeria remains paddy-paddy phenomenon. 

Conventional  logic dictates that the unseen actors and cast of the ill-fated PDP regime would be plotting their next moves. This would include defection. 

The  Labour Party – Mimiko’s electioneering platform – accommodate all sorts of characters as the plot thickens….

The onus will be on Mr. Mimiko, to always evaluate every single decision he has to make, that they be resolved in favour of one, and ONLY one question: -

Is this in the ultimate interest of the people of Ondo state ?

Newspapers: Mimiko takes over in Ondo, vows not to fail

From Bayo Ohu, Kodilinye Obiagwu and Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City

TWENTY-ONE months of intense legal battle over the governorship of Ondo State came to an end yesterday with the Court of Appeal declaring Dr. Rahman Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party (LP) the duly elected governor of the state.

The ruling brought to an end the tenure of Dr. Olusegun Agagu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mimiko will be sworn in today at 11.00 a.m.

In a judgment delivered in two hours 40 minutes by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdulahi, which may be his last as he would be retiring before the end of the year, the court dismissed the 12 issues raised from the 127 grounds of appeal filed by Agagu over the judgment of the lower tribunal which July last year declared Mimiko as the duly elected governor of the state.

Abdulahi also upbraided the Nigerian Police and INEC both of which he said were supposed to be umpires but became partisan. He also criticised the two bodies for having filed appeals against the judgment of the tribunal even though he said it was clear their appeal would not have any impact on the outcome of the case.

Abdulahi declared Mimiko governor at exactly 1.50 p.m. when he said: "I therefore resolved all the 12 issues against the appellant, the 127 grounds of appeal from which they were formulated failed and are dismissed.

"The only appeal outstanding for consideration is that of the second respondent/appellant who can rarely claim to be an aggrieved party. The other appellants are nominal parties who have no stake as to the outcome of the appeal. It is none of their business to decide the person whom the electorate elect and consequently declared by the court to be the winner. The primary function of these purported appellants are to ensure that there is fairness and security at the election. Public policy demands that these two institutions do not descend into the arena and theirs is to tend the rope in the interest of peace and stability in the land. They should learn to remain neutral in the strive to attain order and neutrality bestowed on them by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

"I commend these appellants; the attitude of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Navy who were equally joined as respondents but did not enter the fray to further complicate proceedings that were already complicated.

"In the final analysis, it was clear that all appeals lacked merit, and are accordingly dismissed. The leading judgment of the tribunal delivered on the 26th of July 2008 is hereby affirmed. It is therefore ordered as follows: One, that the election of the appellant Dr. Olusegun Agagu as the Governor of Ondo State in the governorship election of 14th April 2007 is hereby nullified. Two, the first respondent, Rahman Olusegun Mimiko, having satisfied the requirement of Section 139 (2) A, B of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, by virtue of Section 147 (2) of the electoral Act 2006, is hereby declared the Governor of Ondo State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There should be no cost as each party should bear its own cost."

Olusegun Mimiko who was in tears, apparently of joy, after the judgment, pledged not to disappoint the people of the state who he said had maintained their faith in him throughout the legal tussle. He also thanked President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua for allowing the judiciary to do its work without interference. "I thank God Almighty for a day like this. It has been long, we have put our faith in God and the judiciary and we have not been let down, we thank God Almighty.

"I must also thank the President of Nigeria for allowing the judiciary to brace up this time, I must thank the people of Ondo State and all well-wishers in Nigeria for standing by us in those very tough times of the struggle. They have demonstrated faith in the judiciary, faith in democracy. All I have to say is that I know I carry an unusual burden, we turn to the people that have been worthy of their support and I pray to God that I will not fail them."

The court premises were taken over by security personnel as early as 6.30 a.m. with a bomb disposal van packed at about 10 metres from the gate to the court situated along Auchi Road, Ikpoba Hill Benin, the Edo State capital.

A Toyota Hilux Van with registration number AM 807 DGE mounted with a sub-machine gun was stationed directly opposite the court building entrance while stern-looking but polite uniformed and plain-clothes security operatives searched accredited persons at the gate.

There was massive presence of supporters of both parties early in the court with the Ondo State chairman of the PDP, Chief Tayo Dairo, leading the ousted governor's team which included his Commissioner for Information, Eddy Olafeso; Attorney General, Yemi Alao; South West chairman of the PDP, Tajudeen Oladipo; former Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Bakita Bello and other party supporters.

Mimiko entered the court room at exactly 12 minutes past 9 and was accompanied by the National Chairman of the LP, Dan Iwayanwu and the Secretary, Abdulkadir Abdulsalam.

Also with him were Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Vice President, Isa Aremu and other party chieftains.

Wole Olanipekun (SAN) led 34 others, including Femi Falana, to stand for Mimiko, while Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) led 18 others to stand for Agagu.

Abdulahi Ibrahim (SAN) led eight other lawyers to defend the PDP while on the part of INEC, J. B. Dawodu and seven other lawyers argued their case and D. A. Idachaba stood in for the Police.

Mimiko, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election had approached the State Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the purported election of Agagu. Mimiko alleged massive rigging and other malpractices by the PDP in connivance with INEC and subsequently asked the tribunal to annul Agagu's election and declare him as the duly elected governor of Ondo State.

Led to the witness box by his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, Mimiko asked the Justice Garba Nabaruma-led five-man tribunal to declare him the winner because, to him, he scored 84,635 valid votes in excess of Agagu's.

According to Mimiko, "Agagu was illegally declared winner and unduly returned by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner despite the fact that the total number of votes lawfully scored by him (Agagu) was only 108,999 of the 368,532 lawfully cast votes at the election. I scored 193,634 lawful votes, meaning that I had 84,635 votes more than Agagu."

However, Agagu's lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, a senior advocate, did not cross-examine Adrian Forty, a British handwriting and fingerprint expert called as witness by Mimiko. Fagbemi simply said the report was "deemed as read". Analysts had expected Fagbemi to subject the fingerprint expert to rigorous cross-examination the way INEC and PDP counsel did at the Ekiti tribunal. The thinking is that such a drill would have triggered a Freudian slip from Forty that could work in favour of PDP.

The tribunal in the unanimous judgment read by its chairman, Justice Garba Nabaruma, held that Mimiko scored the majority of lawful votes cast during the election as claimed by him in the petition.

He said based on the findings of the panel, the election of the contested wards of Akoko North-East, one out of 10 wards of Ose, four wards of Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo, five wards of the 11 wards of Odigbo and some wards of Akure North had been nullified.

Nabaruma said there were no disputes on the results of the election in areas not mentioned by Mimiko in his petition meaning that the results of the exercise was accepted by all parties.

He said the petitioner proved his case beyond reasonable doubt and that there were malpractices in almost all the areas listed in his petition.

Giving the summary of the lawful votes scored by the petitioner and the first respondent (Agagu) in all the 18 local government areas of the state, Nabaruma said the LP scored 198,269 and PDP 128,669. The judge said the lawful results of the poll indicated that the petitioner scored 25 per cent of the total votes cast in 13 out of the 18 local governments while Agagu scored at least 25 per cent in nine local governments.

The tribunal therefore nullified the return of Agagu as the winner of the April 14, 2007 election by the INEC) and declared Mimiko as the winner of the poll.

Newspapers: PDP plots emergency rule in Ondo, says Mimiko

From Niyi Bello and Julius Alabi, Akure

ONDO State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, yesterday accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of causing problems for his three-week old administration with the aim of "having a state of emergency proclaimed in this state."

The governor in a state-wide broadcast on radio and television referred to what he called "armed invasion of Ondo State Local Government secretariats by former PDP council chairmen" as a major step taken by the PDP to undermine the state authority and cause a breakdown of law and order.

On Monday, under heavy security cover provided by Police and other law enforcement agencies, all the 18 council chairmen and their councillors returned to the council secretariats claiming that the Presidency had ordered their return to office.

Mimiko, who thanked the people for standing by him during "the 22 months of legal struggle to reclaim your stolen mandate", recalled the circumstances that surrounded what he called the "illegal" emergence of the PDP council administrators and the steps he had taken to address the situation in his March 4 dissolution of the council political leadership.

According to him: "It is significant to note that the dissolution of the local council operatives was widely applauded by the generality of our people. Not a single incident of crisis or violence was recorded across the state. Rather, the people celebrated this definitive return to the path of democracy."

He said he was happy when these chairmen decided to institute a court action against the dissolution but "surprisingly however, reports reaching me indicate that the erstwhile chairmen, without waiting for the outcome of the court action, brow-beat the relevant authorities to mobilise fully-armed security personnel to invade the council secretariats with a view to forcefully take over the affairs of the local councils.

"We also have information that some local government secretariats have been looted while official documents have been distorted and destroyed. It is obvious that the situation I have outlined above is being manipulated by elements in the Ondo State PDP who are yet to come to terms with their loss of power in the state in order to create an impression of instability and a sense that the state is ungovernable.

"Indeed, their goal is to create a state of anarchy and lawlessness with a view to persuading President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to declare a state of emergency in our dear state. The negative consequences of such an action are unimaginable."

The governor, however, expressed his belief that the President "who has demonstrated a very high sense of responsibility for peace, rule of law, stability and governance, not only in Ondo State but in the entire nation at large," would not do what is unjust.

While appealing to the people of the state to be law-abiding and avoid any situation that can lead to breakdown of law and order, he pledged the determination of his administration "to continue to take all necessary steps to prevent and arrest the breakdown of law and order."

Last Monday, Mimiko prayed an Akure High Court to restrain all the chairmen of the dissolved 18 local councils in the state from parading themselves as council helmsmen and particularly to forbid them from making any attempt to take over the administration of the councils, which the state government dissolved on March 4.

The governor, through his counsel, John Baiyeshea (SAN), as a defendant in the suit against the dissolution filed by the removed chairmen, also sought an order of the court barring the chairmen from doing anything that could disrupt the smooth administration of the councils "pending the determination of the substantive suit."

But one of the chairmen, Adedayo Omolafe, who is also the leader of the state branch of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), told The Guardian that "there is no court process that we instituted against the governor."

Omolafe, who is the Chairman of Akure South Local Council, said "we never instituted any action against the governor on this matter. Our position has been and still is that we are never dissolved as the governor has no power to do what he said he did. So, there was no basis for going to court at all.

"In actual fact, what the governor is seeking to do through the courts is to pre-empt us from going to our offices. We have done that on Monday even before he approached the court. It is an effort in futility. You cannot undo what you don't have power to do in the first instance."

Baiyeshea, who led nine other lawyers in a motion filed at the court, hinged the application on "the interest of justice, peace and order in the society to preserve the status quo in this matter pending the final hearing and determination thereof."

Mimiko's legal team further argued that "the governor did not need to have any sanction or resolution of the Ondo State House of Assembly before taking the action on March 4, 2009 as the Executive Governor of Ondo State with respect to the administration of local government councils in Ondo State."

They also averred that the plaintiffs "were never duly or legitimately elected as Chairmen of the Local Government Councils in Ondo State and as such cannot lay claim to have at whatever time legally presided over the said local government councils."

Meanwhile, council secretariats across the state were still deserted as Police continued to keep vigil and workers stayed at home in compliance with the directive of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) which, last Monday, directed that they should "stay away because of their personal safety."

As at 10.00 a.m. yesterday morning, two police trucks were parked in front of the Akure South Council secretariat while the chairmen and the councillors walked around the expansive complex as they could not gain access to their offices.

The ALGON chairman, who alleged that the state government was deliberately thwarting their resumption by "arm-twisting the union to bar workers from coming to office", said the council authorities would soon issue a directive for the workers to resume.

Back on track

This blog went on vacation whilst other life events took its toll.

I am back now  and will be updating the site regularly  henceforth.