Former Governor of Oyo State and Chairman, Elders Advisory Council of the All Progressives Congress, Oyo State chapter, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala has advised the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde to postpone the forthcoming local government elections scheduled for the third week of May, 2021 to a later date in order to protect and preserve the sanctity of our evolving democracy.
Alao-Akala gave this advice while reacting to the Supreme Court judgement that invalidated the sack of the duly elected 33 local government chairmen in the state.
Akala said that now that the dust has finally settled on the legality or otherwise on the sack of the duly elected local government chairmen, it is trite in law for Governor Makinde to see that there is the need to postpone the election.
According to him, “going on with the council elections as earlier scheduled will throw the state into another round of legal gymnastics”.
My advise to him is to “sit down with the OYSIEC officials, look into the new development and do the needful which is to shift the election date.
“Fortunately, the Oyo State Independent electoral Commission Chairman is a Learned fellow.He know what the law says as regards disenfranchisement, he knows what the constitution says about holding elections and he knows the consequences of holding a one-sided election.
“Apart from that, both of them should also know thay they have a name to protect now and in the future, as far as the development of our democracy in Nigeria. This is an opportunity for him to correct his past mistakes.”
Speaking further, Akala stressed that he, the governor, “should not commit another blunder by going on with that election which I am 100 percent certain will be faulted again by the Constitution, the Electoral Act and the Judiciary”.
While commending the Supreme Court judgement for condemning the unguarded disregard of the sanctity of the constitution, Alao-Akala urged the judicial arm of government to find possible means of fast-tracking time bound litigations that might deny litigants of their legal rights as is the case of Oyo State ALGON where the final judgment is delivered few days to the official end of the tenure of office of the litigants.
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