Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister for justice, has described the unlawful removal of local government chairpersons by state governors as a treasonable offence.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of an event organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Fagbemi, represented by Tijani Gazali, director of civil appeals in the ministry, condemned the increasing interference of governors in local government administration.
He accused governors and state assemblies of violating the constitution and disregarding a Supreme Court ruling that bars them from meddling in local government affairs.
“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 assembly to wilfully dismantle 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, a few states have continued to carry on with this illegality. This act is tantamount to treason and must be treated as such.”
