A few hours after they were sacked as local government chairmen in Oyo State by Governor Seyi Makinde, the affected council bosses on Thursday vowed to remain in office.

Led by the chairman of Oluyole Local Government Area, Ayodeji Abass-Alesinloye , the chairmen in their address titled: “Public statement on the purported dissolution of democratically elected local government in Oyo Sstate by Governor Seyi Makinde,” the chairmen, through the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, described their sack as undemocratic and illegal.

Abass-Alesinloye, who read the statement on behalf of his colleagues at a press conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Office, Iyaganku Ibadan said, the military-like statement issued by the governor that all councils and the Local Council Development Authorities be dissolved with immediate effect amounted to “a familiar jackboot statement of the military era.”

Describing the statement as a sad throwback to “that better forgotten years of military dictatorship,” the chairmen added, “this is unexpected and quite unfortunate in a democracy. The statement came out less than 12 hours after Governor Makinde was sworn-in.”

They therefore vowed to remain in office.

The governor had, through his Chief of Staff, Bisi Ilaka, directed that “all local government authorities and Local Council Development Authorities be dissolved with immediate effect.”

He asked the chairmen to hand over to their Heads of Local Government Administration or the most senior directors in their local government areas and councils.

While placing embargo on all local and state government accounts until further directives, Makinde also directed that all boards of parastatals and corporations be dissolved with immediate effect.

Another leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has called for the National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, to step aside in the interest of the party.

A chieftain of the APC in Rivers state, Kingsley Wali, who is the latest to make this call, said Oshiomhole is responsible for the predicament the party suffered in different parts of the country in the build-up to the just-concluded general elections.

Wali, who is a lawyer, said that APC as a party should take a collective decision to ease out Oshiomhole to avert further damage to its fortunes.

He stated that the APC national chairman has been running a one-man show which is not in tandem with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“I have been consistent with my view that Adams Oshiomhole was 95 per cent responsible for the problems APC had. You have a man who believes that whatever he says is final and then turned a political party to a labour union.

“For me, if Oshiomhole is a responsible person which I doubt because I can tell you for free, Zamfara may not be the end of the story. There are a lot of cases in Court.

“The reasonable thing for APC as a party to do is to ask Oshiomhole to vacate his seat so that a new orientation can come in that will help the party move forward.

“If we insist on characterising the Next Level slogan of the APC, the attitude that Adams Oshiomhole exhibited cannot be in tandem with the present vision of Nigeria. The man was running a one-man show.

“In every decent political clime, once you lead a party and the party did not perform well you have to go. Let us not delude ourselves because we won the presidency, what about the governorship seats.

“What is in the public domain is that Adams Oshiomhole is hell-bent on making sure that Obaseki doesn’t come back, Yahaya Bello doesn’t come back, Akeredolu doesn’t come back, I don’t know his interest in Bayelsa state.

“In every democracy, the sitting President or the sitting Governor is given a right of first refusal. It will interest you to know that the Deputy National Chairman of APC, Senator Lawal Shuaibu had in a letter requested that the National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole should resign for leading the party to failure in the 2019 elections.”

The Economic and Financial Crimes and Commission, EFCC, has reacted to reports that its operatives have arrested former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, and his wife, Nkechi.

Reports had emerged on Thursday that the anti-graft agency arrested the former governor and sealed his apartment in Eastern Palm University, Ogboko.

However, speaking to DAILY POST on Thursday, EFCC’s spokesman, Tony Orilade, refuted the claims, describing the report as “fake news”.

Orilade said, ”Such report that Okorocha and wife have been arrested is fake news, disregard it.”