Judge transfers case for challenging Ajimobi on 35 new LCDAs

A Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has ordered that a suit challenging the legality of the 35 newly created Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) by the Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi be transferred to the State High Court.

The order of the transfer of the suit was issued on Wednesday at the resumed sitting of the court presided over by Justice P. I Ajoku while delivering ruling on an application made to the court by counsel to the plaintiffs in the matter, Kolawole Adegoke and Ebunoluwa Oyekunle.

Ajoku said the need to transfer the case was necessary so as to assume proper jurisdiction on the matter in the interest of justice.

Ajimobi had last year insisted that he created the new LCDAS in order to deepen the dividends of democracy.

He emphasized that his government had established a committee to look into genuine complaints arising from the LCDAs’ creation.

Ajimobi said, “We realized that we need to further deepen the dividends of our government and that is why we created the LCDAs. If we started from the scratch, it will take time.

“We know the creation is not perfect but we are ready to make necessary adjustments. We are being guided by the principles of fairness to all, we are going to follow the federal government’s approved map for the state and we will follow the constitution of the land in redressing the grievances from the LCDAs creation“.

But, some residents in some local government areas in Ibadan approached the Federal High Court urging it to declare the LCDAs illegal, null and void.

The trio of Bolarinwa Olubodun, Johnson Aderemi and Busayo Adeniran had on 10th of May, 2018, filed an action at the Federal High Court, Ibadan.

The plaintiff in the suit number FHC/IB/CS/67/2018, are praying the court to declare the newly created local council development areas as illegal, null, void and of no effect.

They are also asking it to order Oyo State Government, Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) and other relevant agencies of the government not to recognise the new LCDA’s as tiers of government for failure to comply with the provisions of sections 7, 8, 9 and 162 of the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.

But the defendants represented by an official of the state Ministry of Justice, P. O. Sanni had urged the court to strike out the case through their notice of preliminary objection filed on the 8th of June, 2018.