The Osun Democrats for Society (ODS), a non-governmental organization, has reminded the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, of his role as a former lawyer to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, when the later was Osun State governor.
ODS in a statement to the media on Friday, said the reminder became necessary following recent remarks on the Osun political crisis by the AGF.
Recall, the AGF in a statement today, Friday, called on the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, to tell the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission to call off Saturday’s local government election in the state.
He warned that conducting a new local government council election would not only be invalid but would also amount to a breach of the Constitution since the tenure of the purportedly sacked council chairmen is still running according to last week’s decision of the Court of Appeal, Akure Division.
But the civil society group in reminding the AGF that he’s an interested party in the crisis, and therefore biased to issue such warning, said “the AGF is not a court of law and cannot stop election nor interprete court rulings.”
The group’s statement which was signed by its Legal Adviser, Adewale Fowora said, “We were shocked that a supposed Chief Law Officer of the Federation has decided to speak on matters on which he is an interested party as a lawyer to Mr Gboyega Oyetola and from which he should have recuse himself.
“He is not only a biased assessor, but he has no power to stop an election nor clarify a court judgement.
“Only a court of law can stop an election, not an Attorney General. Secondly, only a court can interpret its own rulings when there are differences of opinions about a court’s judgments.
“Thirdly, the court system has its procedure for enforcing its own judgment and not through self-help, which the Attorney General openly supported.
“When there are disputes about the meaning of a court judgment, parties are expected to approach the Court for interpretation.
The AGF has no constitutional mandate to assume the powers and functions of the courts.”
Fowora further explained “Much more worrisome is the biased refusal to mention the APP judgement which sacked the APC council aspirants.
“The APP judgment was not the subject of appeal at Akure, and so the appeal ruling at Akure has nothing to do with the subsisting APP judgement.
“We are also worried at how the AGF muddled up his narration. Who made information available to his office? Why can’t he approach the originating courts for verified judgements? Why is a whole Attorney General openly supporting self-help apologists who took the law into their own hands.”
This is as Fowora advised the Osun State government to go ahead with the election on Saturday, saying the AGF statement is a political action that has no foundation in law.
He insisted that the “AGF is not the court, and he can not exercise the powers of the Court.”
