Former spokesperson of the defunct Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and the former Chairman of Ekiti Local Government of Kwara State, Hon. Yinka Dallas has warned of fraudulent persons masquerading as IMC members with unlawful agenda.

Hon. Yinka Dallas who gave full details of how members of the defunct IMC were misled into what he described as “a mistake” in a statement on Monday, said they later realised that no provision in ALGON constitution envisaged the formation of the IMC and jettisoned the idea of factionalising ALGON.

He urged security agencies, government institutions and media to assist the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in its war against the “present IMC fraudulent arrangements who are currently using the name of ALGON/IMC which doesn’t exist to defraud the unsuspecting public.”  

Recalling how the IMC was formed, Hon. Yinka Dallas
said “In view of its exigency and importance to alert the Nigerian populace, including the security agencies on the recent happenings in the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) leadership, this press Statement has indeed become necessary.

“Given that sometime last year, April to be precise, out of misconceptions,  misinformation and little or no knowledge of the ALGON Constitution, some set of Local Government Chairmen decided to factionalize ALGON by creating the so-called Interim Management Committee (IMC) with the claim and argument that Hon. Kolade David Alabi – the substantive (ALGON National President) duly elected is not supposed to occupy the position as ALGON National President. 

“Be that as it may, Hon. Abdullahi Maje, Chairman Suleja Local Government, Niger State was nominated to head the said IMC!

“The IMC did not stop at that, we equally went ahead to secure an interim injunction from the Court to stop Hon. Kolade Alabi from parading himself as the ALGON National President!”, Hon. Dallas noted.

According to him, “Exactly July 5th 2020, the Federal High Court Abuja turned down our request and denied us an injunction. 

“At this period, the Governor of Niger State from available report gathered, had instructed Hon. Maje to desist from parading himself as ALGON IMC Chairman and that he must not be part of any move to factionalize ALGON. At that point Hon. Maje withdrew his participation from IMC. 

“In other not to create vacuum, and to sustain the momentum of such ill-advised desperation, Maje’s (IMC) Deputy was made the chairman in person of Hon. Ropo Ige, the Chairman of Ijero Local Government Area of Ekiti State. 

“At this point, the stakeholders of the Association, including the ALGON Board of Trustees (BOT) felt concerned and stepped into the matter. At that moment, so many things were made clear to us (The IMC) and ALGON Constitution was also thoroughly made clear to us.

“For the sake of the Association and not to create any IMC that is not known to the ALGON Constitution, we all dropped our ego and embraced the authentic and mainstream leadership of Hon. Kolade David Alabi led ALGON”, Hon. Yinka Dallas stated.

Looking at matters arising from the misconceptions and ill-intentions, he maintained that “It was sad of recent that we started reading in some online medium as well as from other media organisations of Hon. Maje going around and proclaiming himself as IMC Chairman again!!

“The members of the defunct IMC carried out an independent investigation of what could have led to the resurrection of such dead matter and we realised the fact that it was a move to defraud the uninformed Nigerians, Government institutions, the Political class and others”, Hon. Dallas warned.

Urging action against the menace, he said that “It is instructive to note that, why we use this medium to call on the general public to be very careful in dealing with the Hon. Maje led non-existent IMC, we equally want the Nigeria Security Agencies, Institutions and it’s ally’s to rise up to the task of curbing this type of menace in our society especially now that they are moving from one Government Institution to another.

“Moreover, it will be important to reaffirm to the Nigerian populace that IMC is alien to ALGON Constitution as earlier noted and therefore we will no longer be part of such aberration for the sake of strengthening the Association and securing the future of the Local Governments and Area Councils as well as generations yet unborn. 

“Finally, we want to appeal to the Nigeria Media establishments, to please while in their bid to sanitize our society with investigative reportage, professional ettiquette and Code of Conduct, we equally urge them to be our mouthpiece in the war against the present IMC fraudulent arrangements who are currently using the name of ALGON/IMC which doesn’t exist to defraud the unsuspecting public”, the statement concluded.

Fact check by our correspondent indicates that the splinter group named IMC that broke away from ALGON had nine months ago collapsed and pledged loyalty to the Hon. Kolade David Alabi-led leadership of the Association.

The dissident group, after about eight months of rebellion, said they were misled but pledged loyalty to ALGON National President, Hon. Alabi.

The defunct IMC members had also in their resolution, which was signed by Hon. Ige Ropo Emmanuel, Hon. Adeagbo Adeniyi, Hon. Dangiye Ubarugu, Hon Emeka Ogelle, Hon. Idi Aminu, Hon. Wasiu Owolabi and Hon. Yinka Dallas Ayeni, pledged loyalty to Hon. Alabi led National Executive Committee (NEC) of ALGON.