The chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party emphasised that despite the court judgment, state Houses of Assembly and the governors will always be a clog in the wheel of local government autonomy.

Fayose said this when he featured as a guest on Sunday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.

While stressing that nobody from the grassroots can emerge as a local government chairman without the support of a governor, the Ekiti politician said both the court and FG ‘cannot take the baby from the mother.’

He said, “I am not a lawyer. I am a politician and by God’s grace today, I am an elder statesman. While I love and do not believe that any government should take local government funds, may I say to you very clearly this evening that you cannot take the baby from the mother? There is nobody that can become council chairman without a governor. Anybody telling you otherwise is wasting his time.

“Let me quickly remind you that the House of Assembly of every state controls the activities and checkmates the activities of the local government. While I was governor, I had the privilege of receiving money from Abuja. When you receive money from the account, some people manage the account. They are not politicians or the council chairman. There is only one representative of the governor, which is the local government commissioner. All others are local government officials, workers, and pensioners of the council. And they appropriate the funds. But when you now come and say we are giving power to the local government, what power are you giving to them? No power.”

Continuing, the PDP chieftain said aside from the state lawmakers frustrating the process, most council officials don’t take their work seriously.

According to him, many workers don’t bother to come to work on certain days of the week.

“Any council chairman who says ‘Money is coming to me, I will disrespect my governor’ the House of Assembly will tell you to go and disobey him inside your house. This is because you can never even be a council chairman without the governor standing up for you. The House of Assembly regulates your activities.

“Go to the council meeting on Wednesday or Friday, you will not find 10 per cent of the staff of the local government in the office. They don’t come. My name is Ayo Fayose and I want them to dispute this. They don’t come to work. When you make moves to bring them to book, both NULGE and all leaders of the local government will go and beg the governor.

“They will be telling you, we will not vote for you. This is the way we operate at the local government. The state is more effective in administrative performance than the local government. At the local government, everybody comes to collect money. Even people have left some states. They live somewhere else and money just hit their accounts,” he added.

His tweet reads ”PDP remains our only hope and that of Nigerians at large. It must therefore be jealously preserved by our priceless sacrifice. This is our bond.”

Fayose stated this while reacting to the removal of his cap by suspected hoodlums as he made his way to the podium at the Ondo PDP governorship campaign on Wednesday, October 7.

In a statement released by his media aide, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said he will make a formal report of the incidence to the security agencies and relevant party relevant authorities, noting it was not something to be handled with levity.

the statement read “That’s how late Chief Bola Ige’s cap was removed in Ile Ife, Osun State then and we all know what happened later. So this one will not be ignored and treated as one of those things. The masterminds had it all planned and they followed it up by celebrating what they saw as the success of their plot. They even capped it up by circulating the video. So it was not an accident, it was planned. But those who planned it only succeeded in advertising their political myopism because the popularity of the brand Ayo Fayose, Osokomole cannot be rubbished by such childish act. As for me, I am unperturbed and I must say it clearly that those newcomers to the PDP and their old allies, who won’t mind spoiling the image of the party to achieve their aims will not be allowed to succeed,”

We can now confirm that the court granted his application to travel abroad for treatment as he said he was sick. It followed the re-assignment of the case to Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke after the prosecution expressed loss of confidence in Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, who was previously handling it.

Fayose was first arraigned last October 22 on an 11-count charge of receiving and keeping N1.2billion and $5million stolen funds from the office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) contrary to the Money Laundering Act.

Fayose’s lawyer Ola Olanipekun (SAN) pleaded with the judge to enable the former governor travel abroad for medical treatment. Justice Aneke granted the application and ordered that Fayose must return his international passport to the court on or before September 16.