By Our Reporter,The Nation
Copyright thenationonlineng
A foremost contender for the governorship ticket of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, Omooba Dotun Babayemi, has said the legal steps taken by the party on the lingering local government crisis, has prevented the state from being plunged into crisis.
Babayemi, who noted that the steps showed APC as a responsible and law-abiding party, said opting for law suits had prevented the destruction of property, bloodshed and loss of lives.
He hailed the leadership of the party in the state for taking to legal recourse aimed at resolving the logjam that surrounded the resumption of office by the party’s elected local government chairmen and councillors.
Babayemi commended APC local government chairmen and other elected officials of the councils for their perseverance and for allowing peace to reign by not taking the law into their hands.
The governorship hopeful, in a statement from his media office, said the intervention of the APC leaders, coupled with the calmness and understanding of the council chairmen and councillors, had prevented the state from being thrown into confusion.
“The legal intervention at every point in time by the APC leaders and stakeholders since the local government problems started this year in Osun State has shown the world that APC is a party of peace, it is law-abiding. Were it not so, our dear state would have by now been thrown into a state of lawlessness,” he said.
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The governorship aspirant noted that the autonomy granted the local governments, which formed the basis of the current face-off, was not the creation of anybody in the state, but rather that of the country through the Supreme Court, the apex court of the land.
He said if the principle of the three tiers of government were followed to the letter in the country, grassroots would be developed.
“As enshrined in our constitution, Nigeria runs a federal system, which recognises the centre, state and local governments.’’
Babayemi praised the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola and Tajudeen Lawal-led party executive in the state for their efforts at seeing to the amicable resolution of the lingering crisis through legal means.
He said the laudable steps so far taken by them and the mature way the council chairmen and councillors had been conducting themselves, had saved the state from being plunged into a large scale crisis.
He appealed to local government workers in the state under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) on strike, to call off the industrial action and resume work.
Doing so, the aspirant said, would be for the benefit of the state and its people, especially those at the grassroots.
He added: “Our people at the local level are the ones mostly bearing the brunt of what is going and we must consider them.”
