Supreme Court on Friday held that the illegal removal of 148 elected local government officials by the Abia State government amounts to “official recklessness” of the state governor.
In a judgment delivered yesterday, a seven-member panel of justices of the apex court said, no state governor has the right to illegally remove a democratically elected local government official.
The court also ordered the Abia State government to pay the sacked 148 elected officials of the local government areas of the state their salaries and entitlement for the 23 months they had to stay in office before the expiration of their tenure.
The apex court also awarded a cost of N25, 000 against the appellant after throwing out the appeal. Recalled that state governor in June 2006 illegally sacked Abia local government elected officials, comprising local government chairmen and counselors.
This judgement is for Rotimi Amaechi than it is for any other governor? !
Thank God this problem has been handled, once and for all. The problem is that some of these governors were using them as thugs or anything, before they became governor and have refused to see these L G Chairmen as anything different from what they were. Again, most of these LG Chairmen did not merit their postions but were imposed on their people, so it becomes very difficult for the governors to believe that their boys now have powers to say yes and no to their orders. Independence of the LG can also solve the problem, instead of politicians using those positon to settle their boys, elected officials will believe they have obligations to their people and not just to get their own share of the cake.