The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Oyo State, Professor Oyelowo Oyewo,has accused the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, of being selective in his intervention on the dissolution of local government councils.
The AGF had recently stepped in to stop the dissolution of local councils in Oyo state following the decision of the state government to sack the leaderships of the councils.
Following the dissolution of the council leaderships and the swearing in of caretaker committee chairmen, crises ensued and the AGF sought to intervene.
But Oyewo, while appearing on a Channels TV programme, Sunrise Daily, on Monday maintained that the AGF was not properly briefed on the local government situation in Oyo state.
According to him, the dissolved council chairmen were not properly constituted, having emerged from an election that was held in disobedience to an existing court order.
A release signed by Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to Govenor Seyi Makinde, “If he [AGF] were to be aware of the fact that the matter was sub-judice, probably he would not have taken such wanton, liberal interpretation of his powers. His powers are guided by law, by the Constitution of the land and as interpreted by the court.”
Oyewo, a professor of Law and former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, added that the AGF lacked the power at large to enforce judgment without going through the process of the enforcement of judgment in compliance with the rules of the court that gave the judgment.
He added that Malami’s actions were partisan and not based on the constitution, noting that though many APC-controlled states were operating Caretaker Committees and had dissolved elected local government leadership, policemen have not been sent to enforce “anybody’s rights as it were.”
Oyewo stated that though his office was not served with the AGF’s later dated 14th January, 2020 and that the letter only came to its notice on 22nd January, 2020, due to the seriousness of the letter, it penned a rejoinder to the AGF in which it made the following facts clear.
“One; there is no such Supreme Court judgment against Oyo state. Two, the Attorney General of the Federation does not have power, at large, to be enforcing judgment without going through the process of enforcement of the judgment in compliance with the rules of the court that gave the judgment.
“A letter was written through the Inspector General of Police giving a direction that was supposed to be given to the chairman of APC in Oyo state and the chairman of ALGON to, as it was, reinstate local government and LCDA chairmen who have a matter in court against the Oyo state government. And the matter at that time was, and still is, at the court of Appeal”, he said.
According to Oyewo, the AGF’s actions were clearly not based on law or the Constitution of the land but purely partisan.