Plateau:Suspended LG chairmen reacted to Court order of council Secretariats unsealing
…insist transition committee does not exist in the eyes of law
By Daniel Agada, Jos
The 17 suspended Local Government chairmen in Plateau has described the recent decision of an Area Court Bukuru that order Police Commissioner Plateau State to unseal Local councils in the state as “nullity”.
Recall, recently Area Court sitting in Bukuru Jos South LGA, Presided over by Hon. Justice H. H Dolnaan ordered the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, CP Bartholomew Onyeka to unseal all the 17 Local Government Councils Secretariat in the state.
This followed an application in Suit No: ACB/CV/106/2023 instituted by the Attorney-General of Plateau State (Plaintiff/Applicant)against the Commissioner of Police Plateau State (Defendant/Respondent).
Reacting on the Court decision Wednesday in Jos the state capital, the suspended ALGON Chairman Hon. Alexander Nantuam, while addressing newsmen said, “we have hierarchy of Court, we run a constitutional democracy that all hierarchy of court is clearly defined.
“Once a matter is before a superior court no lower court has a jurisdiction to entertain or decide on the matter. That is why in our view we considered that action a nullity.”
The embattled ALGON Chairman further stated that, “we are certainly not taking by surprise because in the first place the case is initially adjourned to the 25th September, 2023.
“We were even taking aback by the sudden push for the case be heard on the 31st July, 2023, but as law abiding citizens of this country we went peacefully to the court to heard what they have for us to heard.
“Surprisingly, even the defendants couldn’t response to our originating surmount that make nonsense of the quest they brought the case backward. If you saw the urgency in the case and you now brought it to 31st July, 2023, surprisingly you didn’t response to the originating surmount.
“We run a constitutional democracy and section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, guarantee our existence as democratically elected councils officials.
“I can’t imagine the Inspector General of Police opening the Local Government secretariats without allowing to us the access, because I speak the Local Government Law No:3, 2016/2017 as it were does not have a place for management committee or transition committee chairman. They do not exist in the eyes of the law”, he insisted.
