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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Former local government chairmen and councillors in Oyo State have accused Governor Seyi Makinde and the House of Assembly of witch-hunting them on the issue of their outstanding salaries and allowances amounting to N3,374,889,425.60.
The Supreme Court had, in a judgement on May 7, 2021 ordered the state government to pay the 796 former council chiefs, who the apex court found to have been unlawfully sacked on May 29, 2019 by Makinde, their salaries and allowances for the three years they ought to have served.
By its own computation, Oyo State Government agreed to pay N4,874,889,425.60 out of which it paid N1.5 billion, leaving a balance of N3,374,889,425.60 which outstanding judgment debt the Court of Appeal affirmed during a recent hearing in an appeal filed by Makinde, seeking instalmental payment, a request the former council chiefs have faulted.
The ex-council chiefs, in a statement, noted that a recent resolution by the Oyo State House of Assembly, linking some of them with alleged acts of fraud was part of a plot to get back at them with the intention of compelling them to abandon the outstanding judgment debt.
They added that since March this year when they got an order to garnishee the bank accounts of the state government, in an effort to retrieve the outstanding judgment debt, the government and the House of Assembly saw them as a threat and have devised means to witchhunt them into submission, part of which is the phantom fraud claims.
In the statement signed by Ayodeji Abass Aleshinloye, Bashorun Bosun Ajuwon and Oluyinka Jesutoye, the affected former council chiefs stated that none of them was ever invited by the House of Assembly in respect
of any investigation, “be it by the 9th or 10th Assembly.”
