AGF not court of law, cannot stop LG election, says group

A civil society group, Osun Democrats for Democracy, has fired back at the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), for saying that Osun State cannot conduct fresh local government elections until the democratically elected council chairmen have exhausted their three-year term.

The group, in a statement signed by its legal adviser, Adewale Fowora, on Thursday in Abuja, said the AGF is assuming the role of a court in the state’s local government crisis, a role that is beyond his authority.

“The AGF is not a court of law and cannot stop election nor interpret court rulings,” the group said.

The statement further read, “We were shocked that a supposed Chief Law Officer of the Federation has decided to speak on matters on which he is an interested party as a lawyer to Mr Gboyega Oyetola and from which he should have recused himself. He is not only a biased assessor but also has no power to stop an election or clarify a court judgment.

“Only a court of law can stop an election, not an Attorney-General.

Secondly, only a court can interpret its rulings when there are differences of opinion about a court’s judgments. Thirdly, the court system has its procedure for enforcing its judgment and not through self-help, which the Attorney General openly supported.

“When there are disputes about the meaning of a court judgment, parties are expected to approach the court for interpretation. The AGF has no constitutional mandate to assume the powers and functions of the courts.”

The group also alleged that the AGF was biased in its stance.

“Much more worrisome is the biased refusal to mention the APP judgment which sacked the APC council aspirants. The APP judgment was not the subject of appeal at Akure, and so the appeal ruling at Akure has nothing to do with the subsisting APP judgment.

“We are also worried at how the AGF muddled up his narration. Who made information available to his office? Why can’t he approach the originating courts for verified judgments? Why is a whole Attorney General openly supporting self-help apologists who took the law into their own hands?

“We advise the Osun state government to go ahead with the election on Saturday. The AGF’s Statement is a political action that has no foundation in law. AGF is not the court, and he cannot exercise the powers of the court,” the group stated.