All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Osita Okechukwu, has criticized the Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, for going through the state House of Assembly to enact laws to strengthen its access to local government funds.
Naija News reported that Soludo had last week contended that the Supreme Court ruling did not invalidate Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution.
Soludo articulated that the law was prompted by the belief that granting complete autonomy to the 774 local government areas would result in “humongous chaos” and hinder sustainable development.
In an interview with Punch, Okechukwu, the Former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, stated it is wrong for Soludo to override the Supreme Court’s judgement on LG autonomy.
He also stated that it is pure banditry for any legal or political adviser to ask Soludo to circumvent the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court on the financial autonomy of local government councils.
Okechukwu added that any Governor who fails to adhere to the Supreme Court judgement on LG autonomy will pay heavily for it.
He said, “To be honest, I think that Governor Charles Soludo is just riding on a vanity train constructed by some political bandits in his corridor of power. Vanity train in the sense that the Supreme Court judgment expressly ruled that any law derivable from laws enacted by the state House of Assembly in breach of Sections 1(1), (2) and (3), 4(7), 5(2)(a) and (b) and 3(b), 7(1) and (3) and 14(1), (2)(a) and (4) of the Constitution is unconstitutional and unlawful. It went ahead to stop other antics like the setting up of caretaker committees or the dissolution of elected councillors.
“Methinks one needs better clarification of the word bandit. The ordinary dictionary meaning of the word bandit is one who takes unfair and undue advantage over others. It is in this context that one in my thesis classified our clime as besieged by bandits of multi-colours. If a legal or political adviser deliberately advised Governor Soludo to circumvent the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court on the financial autonomy of local government councils, is it not pure and simple banditry? The banditry in local government council administration is what the Supreme Court judgment has exposed. And I repeat that any governor who fails to readjust will pay heavily, if not by law, but by the local constituents.”