Lateef Fagbemi, Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, has described the unlawful removal of LGA chairpersons by state governors as a treasonable offense.
Fagbemi spoke in Abuja on Wednesday as part of the Nigeria Bar Association’s (NBA) inaugural ceremony.
Fagbemi, represented by Tijani Gazali, the ministry’s director of civil appeals, criticized the rising tendency of governors intervening with local government administration in their respective states.
He accused governors and state assemblies of acting in defiance of the constitution and a supreme court ruling that prohibits their interference in LGAs.
“It is unfortunate that over the last few decades in Nigeria, in plain contradiction of the constitutional mandates of state governments, local governments have now seen a great decline as they are nothing but a mere appendage of the state governments, merely existing as a means of supplying extra funds for the state governments,” he said.
“The most unfortunate of the decline is the unconstitutional connivance by state governors and their state houses of assemblies to willing democratically elected local government structures without recourse to the rule of law and replacing them with their candidates.
“Local government structures had almost become extinct in Nigeria and that necessitated the action taken by President Bola Tinubu to immediately intervene through the filing of a suit in the supreme court in 2024.
“Despite the judgment of the supreme court outlawing the illegal removal of democratically elected local government councils by state governors, few states have continued to carry on with this illegality. This act is tantamount to treason and must be treated as such.”
Fagbemi’s remarks come amid an ongoing crisis in Osun state over the status of sacked LGA chairpersons.
