Fayose sacks All Ekiti LG chairmen; shuns Government House

Ayo Fayose is back with his very unique style of governance. The Ekiti State Governor has sacked all the Caretaker Chairmen of the 16 LGAs and the 19 newly created Council Development Areas in the state. Also dissolved are all the boards of government corporations, agencies and parastatals constituted by the immediate past Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

Fayose, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, directed all the caretaker chairmen to immediately hand over to the Director of Administration of their respective council.

The statement reads: “All the local government and local council development areas’ caretaker chairmen are to hand over to the Directors of Administration of the existing local government areas. The Directors of Administration are to take inventory of the property handed over to them.” 

At a thanksgiving service held at the Central Mosque, Ado-Ekiti, on Friday, Fayose said:

“I am for the masses. I’m not in a hurry to go to the Government House. Those who want to go there can go there and enjoy themselves. How will a governor put electricity in his house and the whole town is in darkness.”

Caretaker chairmen were in charge of the 16 LGAs and 19 LCDAs during the administration of Fayemi. The attempt by his government to hold council election in the 16 councils on February 4, 2011, was stopped by the state High Court, following a suit filed by the PDP in the state that some of the members of the State Independent Electoral Commission were members of the then ruling party, APC.

Fayemi, who had promised to hold council election before the end of the year was defeated by Fayose in the June 21 election.

Fayose had at his inaugural speech on Thursday vowed not to fund the LCDAs with the Allocations from the Federation account meant for the 16 councils listed in the 1999 Constitution.

He said “Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) clearly spells the authorities and procedures for the creation of local government.

“The sudden and shoddy balkanisation of the existing 16 local government areas by the immediate past administration under the guise of creating local council development areas is being challenged in the court of law.

“Our party considers the hurried creation of the 19 LCDAs, after incumbent (Fayemi) lost the June election, as gratuitous afterthought of a bad loser. It smacks of political subterfuge masterminded in utmost bad faith.

“But at the moment, the matter is sub judice, and as law abiding citizens, our government will not do anything that will render the decision of the court nugatory.

“However, pending the pronouncement of the court, our administration shall be guided by the provisions of Section 3, Part 1, First Schedule of 1999 Constitution on the list of local governments in Nigeria in the allocation of resources to that tier of government.”

Meanwhile, Fayose is yet to move into the new Government House in Ado-Ekiti, just completed by the admin of Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

Investigations by Punch revealed that Fayose is still governing the state from his campaign office in the Government Reservation Area, Ado-Ekiti. He had on Tuesday invited prophets in Ekiti, both Islamic and Christian, for the cleansing of the Government House.

Also on Thursday in his inaugural speech, the governor threw open the gates of the government lodge and asked people of the state to go and enjoy themselves there as it was built with their money.