The Labour Party (LP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State have commended Thursday’s Supreme Court judgement, which granted autonomy to local governments in Nigeria.

The political parties, in their separate interviews with journalists on Friday in Ibadan, said the development would fast-track development at the grassroots.

The chairman of the Labour Party in the state, Sadiq Atayese, said the autonomy was long overdue.

“The development will go a long way in ensuring that infrastructure development gets to the grassroots; hence, the impacts of democratic government will be more felt.

“Local government is the closest to the people, but unfortunately, over the years, their functions have been usurped by the state government for obvious reasons, thereby stifling development at that level of government administration.

“The judgement has now given a clear direction on how the funds due to local governments from the federation account should be channelled,” he said.

Mr Atayese expressed the hope that state governors would cooperate with the ruling to fast-track development at the grassroots.

“The governors should remember that they have all sworn an oath to protect and defend the constitution and uphold the rule of law,” he said.

He also called for the amendment of all necessary parts of the constitution that might be in conflict with the judgment.

Similarly, the publicity secretary of APC in the state, Olawale Sadare, said the judiciary had, by the judgement, cleared the doubts surrounding the misinterpretation of a particular section of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

According to him, some people have been leveraging that particular section to shortchange the third tier of government.

While stating that the judgement was long overdue, Mr Sadare commended the judiciary for upholding the rule of law.

Mr Sadare urged the federal government to use the judgement to meet the yearnings of the people at the grassroots, through the local government councils, for accelerated growth and development.

He also called on the anti-graft agencies to henceforth be on their toes and monitor how council funds would be utilised to avoid mismanagement.

The federal government had instituted a legal action against the governors of the 36 states at the Supreme Court over alleged misconduct in the local government administration. They were sued through their respective attorneys general.

The suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, sought full autonomy for the local government as the constitutionally recognised third-tier government.

The federal government had argued that since the constitution recognises local governments as the third tier of government, they should be granted autonomy and allowed to draw funds directly from the federation account.

(NAN)