In defiance of the Supreme Court judgement that gives fiscal autonomy to the 774 local government areas in the country, and the court verdict that nullified the creation of the Local Government Development Areas in Ondo State, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has told members of the appointed transition committees to assume office.
The governor through his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Kayode Ajulo, (SAN) had last week justified that the appointment of Transition Committees for 18 Local Governments and 33 Local Council Development Areas was his Constitutional right.
The governor had released the list of 357 members of the transition committees to run the affairs of the 33 LCDAs despite its nullification by an Akure High Court.
It would be recalled that the apex court had ruled that the funds meant for the 774 local governments in the federation would be released directly to the democratically elected executives of the local governments henceforth.
The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Amidu Takuro, explained that Ondo State was not the only state affected by the apex court verdict, saying the local government election could not be conducted in a hurry but had to comply with the Electoral Act.
He noted that the transition committees needed to be there since their appointment reads that it takes immediate effect.
According to him, "No fewer than 21 states are affected and this is not peculiar to Ondo State alone. The governors will be meeting in Abuja during the week and there is still room for negotiations and there is no need for rush.
"Judgement does not take immediate effect, even at that, we cannot conduct local government election immediately. There are procedures for election, so, we will study the judgement.
"Again, the Federal Government will not want to punish the local government workers by withholding their salaries or getting their allocation to them, though we have no option than to concur with the judgement, but it cannot be immediately", he said.
