By Ismail Azeez
The leadership of the Osun State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has cautioned Governor Ademola Adeleke and other state government officials against actions capable of plunging the state into avoidable crisis.
The council chairmen, in a statement signed by the ALGON Chairman who doubles as the Executive Chairman, Ifedayo Local Government Area, Hon. Samuel Idowu Abiodun insisted that there is no vacancy in the state’s local government councils.
Abiodun stressed that the duly elected chairmen and councillors remained the occupants of their various Councils until all the legal means in respect of their statutory three years tenure of office are exhausted.
He also warned Osun labour unions’ leaders specifically the leaderships of the state Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, to retrace their steps from the path partisan politics which is antithetical to civil service rules.
He said the Council Officers of the All Progressives Congress, APC had done the needful on the judgment of the Osogbo Federal High Court delivered few days ago.
According to him, the elected APC Council Chairmen and Councillors enjoyed the constitutional right to be in office till they exhaust their appeal process up till Supreme Court as stipulated by the law of the land.
He argued that the so called “Sit-At-Home” PDP “illegal” chairmen can not benefit the product of the last Federal High Court judgement as being speculated clearing that PDP/Accord were not party to the case as the suit was between APC and APP.
The ALGON Chairman referenced the Federal High Court judgment where it was explicitly decided that the non-existent tenure of the so called Sit-At-Home PDP illegal Chairmen and Councillors has no legal basis as their election was conducted and swearing done during a SUBSISTING tenure of duly elected APC council Chairmen.
He said the 2026 electoral law allowed elected officers to stay in office and enjoy their office benefits until they exhaust their legal rights.
“Section 141 of the Nigerian Electoral Act 2026 is about person elected to remain in office pending determination of appeal. It provides as follows: Where the election is nullified by the Court and notice of appeal against the decision is given within the stipulated period for appeal, the elected candidate shall, notwithstanding the contrary decision of the Court, remain in office and enjoy all the benefits that accrued to the office pending the determination and shall not be sanctioned for the benefits derived while in office,” he is quoted as saying.