Why We Rejected Seyi Makinde’s Cash Offer – Sacked Oyo Council Chairmen

Still, in the mood of the celebration of their victory at the Supreme Court, former Oyo State council chairmen explained the reason they turned down the cash pay-off offered to them by Governor Seyi Makinde.

The sacked council chiefs on Tuesday said the offer was made while the legal battle was on.

On Friday, the apex court in a verdict said the 33 Oyo Local Government and 35 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) were dissolved wrongly.

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The court ordered that the illegally-sacked chairmen and councilors be paid their outstanding salaries and allowances.

The governor had pledged that his administration would pay the affected council officials for the duration of their tenure that they were sacked in compliance with the ruling of the court.

The governor had lashed out on the dissolved ALGON bosses, adding that he offered them the same option of paying them off last year.

He said the embattled council bosses rejected the offer and insisted on returning to the office to serve out their tenure.

But the council chiefs said collecting the offer would have amounted to corruption.

They spoke during their ‘Thank you visit’ to the legal icon, Chief Niyi Akintola, at his Agodi residence, they explained that they rejected Makinde’s offer so as not to promote corruption in government.

The ALGON Chairman, Prince Ayodele Abass-Aleshinloye, said the concern of the chairmen was neither the money nor the office, as wrongly claimed by the Governor, but the need to strengthen democracy at the grassroots.

He expressed the association’s gratitude to Akintola, who provided them with legal service pro-bono up to the Supreme Court.

Abass-Aleshinloye said: “How can you give me money for the work I didn’t do and I have not done. Governor Makinde wanted to pay us last year when we had not done the work. And it is not legal and at the end of the day, it is all about corruption.

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“If we had collected the money, we were encouraging corruption. And anybody can come up later in the year or in the nearest future to challenge us for collecting money for the work we had not done.

“But, now, any proclamation from the Supreme Court is the law. This is the law. A judgment has been given, the money is due to us and we can collect it now. When he (Makinde) wanted to pay us, the question was, why will he pay us? Why will he even sack us in the first instance when the court said it’s wrong? Why would you do that? If you had done that and you said you want to pay us, that in itself is corruption, so.

Chief Akintola said he decided to give service free to the embattled council bosses as part of his contributions to the development and progress of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Encouraging party members and leaders on the need to be united, Akintola said his commitment to the progressive fold and sacrificial services were some of the things he learned from a former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, the late Chief Bola Ige.

All the affected chairmen from the 33 local government areas and the 35 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) attended the meeting.