Embattled Ogun LG Chairman Set to Challenge Suspension in Court Next Week

Wale Adedayo, the embattled Chairman of Ogun State’s Ijebu-East Local Government Area, has announced plans to challenge his suspension in court the following week.

According to a Gistlover report from earlier in the week, Adedayo accused Abiodun of diverting statutory federal allocation to local governments in Ogun State for two years in a letter sent on Sunday to the state’s former governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba.

Additionally, the local government chairman claimed that the governor had declined to give him 10% of the state’s internally generated revenue that was his due.

An accusation that Governor Abiodun has blatantly denied, claiming that instead of doing so, his administration increased the federal funding for local government chairmen to perform their duties.

Adedayo’s suspension as chairman of the local government in Ogun State’s Ijebu East Local Government Area was announced by the council members on Thursday.

According to information obtained by Gistlover, seven council members put the Adewale on three-month leave over mal-administrative Mis-management financial funds.

The Department of State Service (DSS) interrogated the suspended LG chairman on Friday.

Adedayo claimed in a conversation with The Punch that the council members lack the legal authority to suspend him and that he will be contesting their action in court the following week.

He claimed that the reason for what he called the “kangaroo suspension” was because they were unable to persuade him to retract the letter.

The head of the Ijebu-East council continued by saying that he was compelled to withdraw his accusation against the governor.

He said: “Yes, that is exactly what is happening. It was after I refused that they started all this kangaroo suspension. There is no way I’m retracting it.

“Yes, I’m challenging them in court next week over the suspension. The councillors have no such power either in the state laws or in the Constitution to do that. What you have is the removal of the chairman, and once you don’t impeach, you don’t have the power of suspension, and there was no due process before that was done.

“At least they should have set up a committee and called me to come and defend myself against the allegation. Nobody invited me for questioning. You can’t just sit down and pass judgment without hearing from the other side. I’m sure that is why they came with policemen yesterday (Thursday). More than 100 policemen came to my local government area. Everybody was just running helter-skelter. If I had been there, I know that I would have been rough-handled or arrested. I just avoided the place,” he stated.