Kunle Adelabu & Wale Jagun
-Accuse her of not doing any project, refused to pay councilors’ entitlements among other allegations
The Councilors of the Ikorodu West Local Council Development Area (LCDA), led by the Council Leader, Hon. Wasiu Olomu , on Monday, January 20,2020, locked out the Council Chairman, Hon. (Princess) Jumoke Jimbo-Ademehin, for lack of performance.
THE IMPACT also gathered that the Council legislators are also unhappy with the chairman due to her failure to pay their entitlements.
According to report, the legislators have been having issues with Hon. Ademehin for over a year but the party leaders had always prevailed on them to sheath their swords.
Our reporter gathered that the cause of today’s showdown was due to the alleged bragging by the Council Chairman to use his closeness with the new Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs in the State to deal with the legislators .
It was also alleged that Hon. Ademehin was boasting to the party leaders and other members that she will deal with the legislators since Hon. Yetunde Arobieke, former Agboyi-Ketu Council Chairman and the Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development who was sympathetic to the legislators’ predicament, has been moved to another ministry in the last week’s cabinet reshufflement by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The aggrieved Councilors were said to have arrived at the Council Secretariat in the early hours of the day and used the Maze, which is the symbol of the legislative authority, to block the chairman’s office, thereby preventing her and her staff from entering the office.
They did not stop at that as they were also said to have used their official vehicles to block the main entrance of the council Secretariat main gate to prevent other vehicles from coming into the local government’s premises.
Speaking on phone with THE IMPACT, Hon. Adebowale Kalejaiye, the Majority Leader of Ikorodu West LCDA Legislative arm, said that the chairman’s acts and inactions are no longer bearable to the legislators.
The council leader, who said that he was in a meeting with other councilors as at the time of speaking with our reporter on phone, alleged that the chairman has been deducting taxes from their entitlements since 2017 without remitting same to necessary quarters.
“This is the height of the chairman’s excesses. You will not believe that since 2017 till date, the council has been deducting taxes from our money but has not been remitting same”, he stated.
“That has been going on since but we have not been able to speak against it because of interventions”.
Hon. Kalejaiye also stated that the chairman has not been doing anything in terms of projects in the wards across the council.
“Since we got to the council, the council has not done any project in the wards since 2017 that we nominated project worth of N500, 000 in each ward and she used about 10 months to pay the money”, Hon. Kalejaiye stated.
He stated that they had written petitions to the Commissioners for Local Government and Community Affairs and the House of Assembly Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs but nothing has been done about the petitions.
Hon. Kalejaiye confirmed the allegation that Hon. Ademehin was boasting to deal with them on the heel of Hon. Arobieke’s redeployment from the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs.
“It is a painful thing to see her (Hon. Ademehin) bragging everywhere that she’s going to deal with us after the former commissioner of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs was moved to another ministry.
“She was telling stakeholders that the commissioner that is sympathetic to our predicaments has been moved and as a result, she is going use her connection with the new one to deal with us”, he alleged.
The lawmaker, who promised that the entire councilors in the council are going to discuss the issue at length with our reporter, also alleged that the chairman, rather than call for peaceful resolution, called in the police from Owutu and Ipakodo Police Stations.
“You will not believe that our chairman called in police from Owutu and Ipakodo police stations to handle political and council matter. Those policemen came and were asking us to remove our vehicles but we didn’t answer them”, he added.
A source within the council, while also speaking on the matter with our reporter, stated :
“The chairperson has been denying the councilors of thier entitlements.This is not the first time. She has been marginalising the councilors for the past two years till date”, he alleged.
“They have been receiving zero sitting allowances and Impress too”, he added.
He also alleged that the Council Chairman has been doing things that needed the Councilors’ approval without recourse to them.
“Another thing is that she has refused to get approval from legislative arm in whatever project she is embarking on”.
Attempts to speak with the Council Chairman for her own side of the incident proved abortive as at the press time as her phones were switched off.
