The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has come under fire from Mr. Kassim Afegbua, a member of the Edo Local Government Administrative Panel of Inquiry, for remarks implying that the state legislature lacked the authority to remove council chairmen from office. Recall that Fagbemi had asked for the chairmen and vice chairmen to be suspended, stating that the local government’s legislative branch was the only body with the authority to remove or suspend council chairmen. In a statement released in Benin on Saturday, Afegbua, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said that the state legislature was empowered to deal with wrongdoing under the Edo State Local Government Law, 2000. He maintained that the Assembly’s authority to control local government management is not superseded by the Supreme Court’s ruling on local government autonomy.
“The contention that it is only the Legislative arm of the LG that can check the council’s financial recklessness is nebulous and therefore unconvincing”
“Those who try to equate the relationship between the FG and a state government with that which exists between the state government and a Local government are merely engaging in mischief.
“Following concerns over their activities, the Assembly debated and voted to suspend the chairmen for two months to facilitate investigations, “he said.
Afegbua disagreed with the AGF for using the term “removal,” saying that the chairmen were only suspended to allow for an administrative inquiry.
“AGF sir, the chairmen have not been removed, but suspended. In line with the law, the suspension is to last for two months in the first instance.
“whilst the investigation into their financial activities by the administrative panel of Inquiry subsists.
“It is misleading, therefore, for the AGF to rush to town without taking a judicial notice of the rationale for this decision as well as the raison d’etre for the action, in the first place.
“What we have done in Edo State does not offend the verdict of the Supreme Court with respect to financial autonomy.
According to him, “the AGF’s opinion is not binding. The chairmen remain suspended until investigations are completed, and we will not be swayed by nebulous or invalid injunctions”.
