Osun State AG insists Appeal Court did not reinstate sacked council bosses

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo

Osun State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Jimi Bada, on Tuesday insisted that the Court of Appeal in Akure did not reinstate the sacked local government chairmen and councillors.

Speaking with journalists in Osogbo, Bada emphasized that the ruling only struck out the originating summons filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

However, he noted that the judgment in the case filed by the Action Peoples Party (APP) was binding on all political parties in the state.

His words: “I want to confirm to you straight away that the Court of Appeal, Akure, did not go into the merit of the appeal launched by the APC before them.

“Their finding was just that there was no cause of action at the time the PDP filed a suit against OSSIEC at the Federal High Court. What the Court of Appeal did was to strike out the originating summons filed by the PDP, and that was all.

“Anybody can interpret what the court actually said, but at no point did the court hold that any sacked local government chairman should return to office. The Court of Appeal did not make that statement yesterday (Monday).”

Bada further stated: “The APP had a judgment that is still subsisting. The Federal High Court delivered the judgment on November 30, 2022, declaring that the local council election held across Osun State on October 15, 2022, was unconstitutional, invalid, null, and void for violating the constitution.

“The court also ruled that all persons occupying offices in the state’s local government councils by virtue of that election were accordingly sacked.”

However, the National Secretary of the APC, Dr. Ajibola Basiru, in a statement, described the Attorney General’s claim as an affront to the rule of law in Nigeria, saying his position exposed the state government as an enabler of illegality.

Basiru said: “This deliberate misrepresentation of the court’s judgment is an affront to the rule of law and exposes the Osun State Government as an enabler of illegality. Ordinarily, it is expected that a lawyer should know that there is a presumption of validity and binding effect of a court judgment until it is set aside.

“The only option open to a party dissatisfied with the Court of Appeal judgment is to challenge it by appealing to the Supreme Court. Neither Alimi nor the Osun State Government can sit on appeal over this judgment. This is elementary law.

“The Court of Appeal judgment considered all grounds of appeal raised in CA/AK/270/2022 against the judgment of the Federal High Court (Justice N. Ayo-Emmanuel), which had nullified the local government elections and ordered the elected officials to vacate office.

“In allowing the appeal, all the reliefs sought by the APC were granted, including setting aside the judgment of the Federal High Court and ordering the restoration of the sacked local government councils back to office.”