The suspended 17 Plateau State local government chairmen have called on the police to unseal their offices to allow them to return.
They called on Governor Caleb Mutfwang to obey the law and reinstate them, describing the transition committees installed in their place as illegal.
It would be recalled that Mutfwang, on the recommendation of the 9th Plateau House of Assembly, suspended the 17 LGA chairmen on June 1.
The chairmen, however, challenged their suspension at Plateau High Court and the matter is still ongoing.
The embattled chairmen, on June 9, 2023, secured an interlocutory injunction restraining the governor from removing and replacing them with transition committee chairmen.
The leader of the suspended LGA chairmen, Mr Alex Na’antuam, while speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Jos, described their removal as illegal.
Na’antuam, who was chairman of Shendam Local Government Area, appealed to the Inspector General of Police to take immediate action to unseal the 17 council secretariats and allow constitutionally and democratically-elected officials to resume their work.
Na’antuam stated that upholding the rule of law and protecting the democratic process was a responsibility that falls upon the police force and urged them to take action.
He described as laughable the judgment of a Bukuru Area Court directing the Plateau State Commissioner of Police to seal the local government secretariats.
According to him, a lower court does not have the power to adjudicate a matter that is pending in a superior court of law.
(NAN)