Drama has continued despite a
recent court judgment in favour of sacked Councillors in Plateau State; as they
have given Governor Simon Lalong 30 days within which to pay their N1.57
billion accrued salaries and allowances or face another court action.
The councilors, who made the
demand through their counsel, Mr Gyang Zi in a demand notice dated Aug. 14,
2017, threatened to again sue the Governor should he fail to pay the said
amount to them within the given 30 days period.
It would be recalled that
Governor Simon Lalong had, on July 15th, 2015, sacked elected officials in the
17 Local Government Areas of the State and replaced them with interim
management committees.
The officials had nine months
left to serve out their two-year tenure when they were sacked.
Miffed by the action, the
Councillors dragged the government before Justice David Mann of Jos High Court
III, who ruled in their favour on August 4th, 2017.
In the ruling, Mann faulted the
removal of the elected councillors when their two-year tenure was remaining
nine months and described it “null and void and of no effect.’’
He declared that their sack
violated section of 7 of the Nigerian Constitution as amended and section 23 of
the Local Government Council Law and Provisions of Sections 1 and 2 of the
Plateau amended Local Government Council Law of 2007.
An elated Zi had told journalists
that the sacked officials, by the favourable ruling, were entitled to be paid
N1.57 billion being monies accrued to them in the nine months they were thrown
out.
But the Plateau Government,
through its Counsel, Mr Garba Pwul (SAN), had debunked the councilors’ claim
asserting that by the court Judgment they (Councillors) were not entitled to
even a kobo from the state government.
However, the Counsel to the
plaintiffs insisted in the letter of demand notice that the Councilors have the
right to demand for their salaries and allowances accrued to them during the
remaining nine months of their truncated two year tenure.
The lawyer told Governor Lalong that, “The Court declared your action in dissolving the office of our clients as null and void and of no effect and also granted the reliefs striking down the provision of section 41 (4) of Plateau Local Government Law for being inconsistent with section 7 of Constitution of Nigeria as amended”.
“As a result of the Judgment of the Court, which nullified your action, and in the eyes of the Law, our client have successfully performed the functions of their offices and have finished their tenure on March 15, 2016 accept that they have not been paid their accrued N1.57 billion entitlements for a period of nine months.
“We hereby humbly demand that you immediately act forthwith and pay our clients their entitlements of N1, 571, 266, 149.58 within 30 days of the receipt of the letter and where you fail to act accordingly, we shall be left with no option than invoked the full instrumentality of the law, ’’ the letter warned.
Zi further warned, ”the
instrumentality of the undefended list or any other process of law will be
explored to recover the said amount (N1.57bn) against the Government and the 15
Local Government Councils involved.’’
According to him, the demand
notice ”served as a pre-action notice to the state government and the LGAs.’’
However, when contacted, the
State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the State, Jonathan
Mawiyau, said the government was in receipt of the demand notice and was
studying it for appropriate action.
“We are very much in receipt of
the letter of demand notice from the Counsel to the sacked councilors and we
are studying it to see what action to take on it.
“This government will look at the
Court Judgment and the demand notice and then act appropriately as soon as
possible, ’’ Mawiyau assured.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com