From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The leadership tussle rocking the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), appears to be getting intense as the Interim Management Committee (IMC), has vowed to unseat the President, Kolade Alabi, whom it claimed is not a chairman of any local government in the country to occupy the position.
ALGON’s Secretary General, Mohammed Abubakar, at a press briefing, yesterday in Abuja, explained that the Local Council Development Authority (L.C.D.A.) in Lagos State, which Alabi is the chairman is not part of the 774 local governments recognised in the constitution.
Although Abubakar noted that IMC had sought an injunction from a Federal High Court in Abuja restraining Alabi from parading himself as ALGON president.
He, however, accused some security personnel of taking side with Alabi and his cohorts in the scheme of things, warning that their biased position would be chaotic should they stop IMC members from gaining access to the secretariat.
He said: “Sadly, in the past one and a half year, the association has been in the hands of those we term as imposters especially in the person of Kolade Alabi from Lagos State.
“The said honourable Kolade Alabi was later discovered not to be a chairman of the 774 local governments in Nigeria.
“And the association comprises of constitutionally recognised local governments in Nigeria.
“In a situation whereby somebody misled the association by introducing himself as chairman of one of the 774 which, in my own view, is criminal in nature.
“You have given the impression and given yourself out as a member of this association and unfortunately a proper check was not carried out as he was brought in to office. But in moving forward, it was discovered that he is not a member of the 774.
“He is only an administrator from a Development Area Council formed by the then Lagos State governor just for political convenience. And, again, such a person now metamorphose to become a member of the 774.
“Not only stopping at that, but also, emerged as president of the association. We would not say because that mistake things should not be corrected.
“Sadly, again, when members and stakeholders put in all the efforts to see that this abnormality is corrected, an average Nigerian man is trying to resist that.
“If ordinarily when it discovered and he excused himself to allow us position the association to elect the rightful person who should occupy that seat, the problem would not get to this.
“But, the said Kolade Alabi, in connivance with few members of the association choose to interpret the constitution of Nigeria to their own advantage and convenience. The constitution of Nigeria does not belong to a man; it guides everybody.
“If it must be said that it favours only you or against you then it is unacceptable.”
He continued: “The association has a constitution and organ that can decide the fate of the association of any given time. The organ is the general assembly. Whatever is decided in the general assembly of ALGON is binding on every member of the association.
“So, it is the general assembly that set up the IMC. Mind you, the general assembly comprises of the councillors, vice chairmen, and chairmen.
“So, the situation brought in the IMC which is led by Abdullahi Maji, the Suleja Local Government Chairman which is to govern for six months.
“When that happened, Kolade Alabi and his cohorts choose to ignore the decision which means that they have disobey the constitution of the association.
“We went to court to interpret the decision. The court gave the IMC the power to carry on with its duty.
“When members of the IMC resume their function, they discovered a compromise on the part of security agencies. I do not see any reason in which after the resumption of the IMC few other people would be escorted to the secretariat by the police.
“We discovered that the action was carried out by the DPO of Maitama police station. The painful part here is that after the resumption of office by the IMC, the members quickly paid a courtesy call to the DPO.
“Meanwhile, the police have been retrained not to disturb the IMC to function. But if they try to disturb us on Monday it would result to chaos because the IMC is going to mobilise members and the thugs they used and it would become free-for-all fight.”
Meanwhile, the Chief of Staff to the IMC President, Chukwudi Fred Ezinwa, called on the Inspector general of Police, Alkali Baba, to intervene on the matter.
“So, we are calling on the inspector general of police and other security agents to look around and talk to their men at their various command so that they would not encourage a situation that would escalate beyond their control,” he said.