By Gbenga Olarinoye
OSOGBO—FORMER President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, has faulted the directives by the House of Representatives to the Accountant-General of the Federation to withhold the allocations accruing to Local Government Areas in Ondo, Edo and Ekiti states.

The decision of the house came on the heels of dissolutions of Local Governments in the three states following the nullification of the elections of the former Governors in those states by the Appeal Court.

But, Chief Olanipekun while reacting on the development at the second annual public lecture in Honour of Justice Bola Babalakin yesterday,  stated that the action of members of the lower chamber was illegal and unconstitutional.

According to him, the house did  not have the constitutional right to give such a directive to the Accountant General of the Federation, adding that it was out of their jurisdiction.

He wondered why the lawmakers did not learn from the judgment of Supreme Court over similar issue involving Lagos State when former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered the Council allocations be withheld as a result of the creation of Local Development Council Areas LCDA.

He said: “If anybody is aggrieved let that person go to court. When former President Obasanjo took the same step against Lagos government by withholding all the allocations coming to the Local Government Areas, the Supreme Court told Obasanjo that he was wrong.

Our members of the House of Representatives should have learnt from that incidence. The federal government does not have the constitutional power going to Edo, Ondo and Ekiti states. I think our lawmakers should face the functions and duties of lawmaking they are elected to perform rather than dabbling into areas that does not concern them.

In any effect the Attorney General of the Federation is not an employee of the House of Representatives.”

Meanwhile, in his lecture titled “The Judex-Holding Justice in Trust for the Creator”, Chief Olanipekun suggested that judicial officers should be appointed from among the best materials available as Judges, and called for an immediate stakeholders meeting to address the rot in the judiciary.

He regretted that some Judges had desecrated the bench on the altar of material gains, saying that some of them had over the years become multi-millionaires though financial inducements.

The former NBA President asked how many of Nigerian Judges could  say that they had discharged their duties in absolute loyalty and obedience to the creator who as the Ultimate Judge, commanded them to hold justice in trust for Him.

Chief Olanipekun suggested that a stakeholders’ meeting in the legal profession should be urgently called whereby those involve can cross fertilise ideas, “and if need be name names and give instances of misdeeds and untoward acts among members of the bar and bench