Alexander Mwolwus, former Special Adviser to immediate past Governor Jonah Jang, has advised members of the sacked local government council of Plateau State to challenge their ouster in court.
Mwolwus gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Pankshin on Monday.
He said: “The sacking of the chairmen of the 17 local government councils of the state is a gross violation of their fundamental rights as duly elected chairmen of their respective councils.
“There is an existing Supreme Court ruling of 2014 that says no governor has the power or right to sack any LG chairman.
“So what (Governor Simon) Lalong did was unconstitutional.”
Mwolwus, who is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, said the chairmen had earlier obtained court injunction restraining the Lalong-led All Progressives Congress administration from removing them from office.
“The governor went ahead to remove them, which to me is an abuse of that court order by a man who knows the tenets of the law as a trained lawyer,” he said.
NAN recalls that Lalong had in a statement announced the sacking of the chairmen of the 17 local councils of the state.
Lalong directed them to hand over government property in their possession to Directors of Personnel Management in their respective councils with immediate effect.
Also reacting, Nanle Emmanuel, the Director of Press to the Governor, said the sacking of the chairmen was not in violation of any court order.
Emmanuel said: “As far as this administration is concerned, there is no court injunction that has reached our governor as we speak, so, I don’t see any fault in his directive.”
Emmanuel, however, enjoined the chairmen to go to court to seek redress if they felt otherwise about their sack, in the best interest of the state.
NAN.