Dino Melaye: I want to be local government councilor, Gov. Bello frustrating my ambition.

Dino Melaye

The Senator representing Kogi West constituency in the National Assembly, Dino Melaye, has said he is interested in being a councilor in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi state.

Senator Dino Melayo stated this in a fresh suit he filed at the Federal High Court, Lokoja, asking for an order to stop the release of statutory allocations to the state’s 21 local governments. He said the refusal of Governor Yahaya Bello to conduct election into the councils was affecting his ambition.

Dino Melaye said that the Federal High Court, Lokoja should restrain the Minister of Finance, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) from remitting the funds meant for the local governments until election is conducted into the councils.

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He added that the absence of democratically-elected officers at the local government level had made the state government spend and dissipate the funds meant for the 21 councils.

The federal lawmaker said it was illegal for the governor to appoint administrators, trustees or sole administrators for the local governments in the state.

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In an affidavit Melaye personally sworn to, he affirmed as follows: “That I was informed by my lawyer, Mr. Ajayi Jaiye Samuel, on the 5th day of May, 2017 at about 8pm while discussing the facts in this suit and my predicament arising from the refusal of the 6th defendant to conduct Local Government Elections in Kogi State, I verily believe him to be true and correct as follows:

I want to be local government councilor, Gov. Bello frustrating my ambition – Dino Melaye

“That it is improper to put in charge the administration of the 8th to 28th defendants, persons including civil servants, who are not democratically elected.

“That it is not proper for the 6th defendant to have refused to conduct Local Government Elections before and after the expiration of the tenure of the elected Local Government Councils of the 8th to 28th defendants.

“That there cannot exist validly constituted Joint Local Government Account Allocation Committee of Kogi State without democratically elected chairmen and councillors of the 8th-28th defendants.

“That is not proper for the 29th (CBN), 30th (the Minister of Finance) and 31st (the FAAC) defendants to continue to release monies accruing to the 8th -28th defendants from the Federation Account to the 7th defendant without democratically chairmen councillors of the 8th-28th defendants.

“As an astute politician, I am interested in contesting for a councillorship position in my Local Government Area, Ijumu and I am also interested in the outcome of the local government elections in all the local government areas of Kogi State, the 8th-28th defendants in this suit.”