Oyo LG crisis suit: Court fixes Feb.21 for out-of-court settlement, hearing

The Oyo State High Court in Ibadan, on Wednesday fixed Feb, 21, for a report on the out-of-court settlement or hearing in a suit instituted by the Oyo State Government against the sacked 33 Local Government Chairmen and 35 LCDA in the state.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Oyo State government instituted the case to prevent the chairmen from returning to their offices as ordered by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).

The respondents in the suit are the AGF, Inspector-General of Police,Oyo State Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON),Mr Abass Alesinloye and the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC),Mr Akin Oke.

Justice Mashud Abas adjourned the suit, after hearing the submission of counsel in the suit on their effort to resolve the matter out-of-court as agreed by the  parties at the previous adjourned  date.

Abas held that all the parties in the suit were stakeholders in the state and urged them to still exercise some level of maturity in resolving the matter amicably in the intrest of the state.

“I urge you to still explore means of settlement,”the judge said.

Earlier, counsel to the state government, Akin Onigbide, SAN, told the court that the parties in the suit had a meeting on Feb.8 and 10 in order to resolve the matter out of court.

Onigbide said parties could not conclude on the terms and conditions for possible settlement and agreed to report to the court to seek further accommodation.

In his response, the lead counsel to the respondents,Mr  Adeniyi Akintola, SAN, confirmed the meeting, saying no agreement was reached by the parties.

Akintola said that the respondents brought a written proposal to the meetings on their demands while the defendants brought none to both the meetings of Feb.8 and 10.

He said that the claimants’counsel told them at the meeting that the demands of the respondents are absolute.

Akintola said that the respondents are ready to go on with the hearing of the matter. (NAN)