Background
The local government is another tier of government and Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution states that there shall be democratically elected local government councils in Nigeria.
Both the High Courts in the state and the Supreme Court of Nigeria, have pronounced that CARETAKERSHIP or any other nomenclature other than a democratically elected council, is illegal. Also, in the 5th Assembly in Kogi State, under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Abdullahi Bello, the House passed a resolution affirming the provisions of the Constitution that Caretakership at Local Government Council in the state was ILLEGAL.
In the 2019 general elections, the federal government conducted elections into the Governorship and National Assembly election through the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and have announced elections to the Governorship positions in Kogi state on the 2nd of November 2019, in which the current Governor has declared interest to contest, which is his constitutional rights.
However, more worrisome and condemnable is that the same Governor has blatantly refused to conduct elections into the local government councils under his administration in the last 3 years since the expiration of the last democratically elected councils in May 2016.
He has consistently denied the people of Kogi state from from electing their local government officials through democratic means.
The current Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon Mathew Kolawole, as the Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, have consistently conspired with the Executive Arm of government in perpetrating illegality in respect of Local Government Administration in Kogi State, despite the fact that they were also democratically elected.
The current extension of the illegal Administrators was carried out on October 11th, 2018. It then means that tenure of the illegal extension expired on the 29th of March 2019. And yet no further extension has been carried out and yet they have remained in office ILLEGALLY AND ILLEGITIMATELY under the leadership of Rt. Hon Mathew Kolawole.
There has been no report of oversight function into the local government councils’ budget of 2018. We wonder if this action by the Assembly is because of unalloyed loyalty of the current Speaker to the Executive Governor, which has made the Assembly to refuse since the 29th of March 2019 to extend the illegal tenure of the Administrators.
We therefore call for either the sack of the entire Administrators by the Kogi State Assembly under the Speakership of Rt. Hon Mathew Kolawole or to extend their tenure to give it some form of LEGITIMACY, since it is the responsibility of the State Assembly to make laws for the Local Government Councils.
We condemn the non-extension of this ILLEGAL Administrators of Local Government Councils, which must done immediately without further delay.
Signed:
Idris Miliki Abdul
Executive DirectorCenter for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR), Lokoja, Kogi State.
