An Osun-based rights’ activist and Barrister, Kanmi Ajibola on Monday told an Osun State High Court, sitting in Ilesa to declare as “unconstitutional and illegal” the new state’s electoral law that proposed parliamentary system at local government level.
Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) recently announced that the State had adopted the parliamentary system of government for January 26, 2018, local government election in the state.
Ajibola had dragged before the court the governor, the state lawmakers, the state independent electoral commission alongside eight other political parties, calling for immediate stoppage of the council’s polls.
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The lawyer stated that the makers of the law, “State of Osun House of Assembly” and the person who signed it “Governor of the State of Osun” and the law itself “State of Osun Local Government Areas (creation and administration) Law, 2015” upon which the processes of the election are based are strangers to the 1999 constitution and are non-existing.
Also in the suit filed on Monday, November 6, 2017, at the State High Court, Ilesa Judicial Division, Ajibola contended in a 56-paragraph affidavit that he was billed to contest the Chairmanship election under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was already adopted as a sole candidate in Oriade Local Government.
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In his originating summons, Ajibola sought for 13 reliefs and these include a declaration that the “State of Osun Local Government Areas (creation and administration) Law, 2015” and “State of Osun Local Government Areas (creation and administration) amendment (No.1) Law, 2017” having been enacted by the legislative body that is not known to the constitution and for the State not known to the 1999 constitution, and having been assented to by the governor in that manner, they are as such illegal and unconstitutional.
He wanted the court to set aside the “State of Osun Local Government Areas Law, 2015” and “State of Osun Local Government Areas amendment (No.1) Law, 2017 ”having been enacted by the legislative body that is not known to the constitution and for the state not known to the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
BOLA BAMIGBOLA, Osogbo
