By Andrew Oota
Senate has called on the federal government to immediately halt the allocation of local government funds to states without democratically elected council chairmen.
This was on the heels of a motion by Senate minority leader ,Senator Patrick Abba Moro titled ,”Urgent Need to halt the erosion of democracy: the dissolution of elected Councils in Benue State”.
In his lead debate, Senator Moro called attention of the Senate,it was unconstitutional l place Caretaker Committees to replace Elected Councils, describing it as an aberration and alien to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended .
According to him,” Section (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) guarantees a system of local government by Democratically Elected Councils.
” it is the Constitutional responsibility of every state to ensure the existence of Local
Government Councils by law.
“There are subsisting court rulings directing the Governor, the House of Assembly, their agents, privies etc not to tamper with the tenure of the elected Councils, and equally aware that the Governor/Government of Benue State have not appealed these judgments and that it is against the grain of the rule of law”.
In there revolution senators joined in condemning what it considered “the arbitrary dissolution of democratically elected Local Government Councils in Benue and other states in Nigeria
“Urge the governor of Benue state to adhere to his oath of office to obey the rule of law and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Review the governor’s dissolution of the elected councils and constitution of caretaker committees and reinstate the elected council executive forthwith.
“Urge the Federal Government to withhold statutory allocation to the local governments councils not democratically elected”
Senate President Godswill Akpabio in his comment expressed concerns over the multiplication of federal agencies but advocated the creation of the National Electoral Commission for local government so that governors would no longer have overbearing influence on council polls.
Also in his contributions earlier , senator
Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North) nooted that about 16 states in Nigeria are currently without democratically elected council officials
He therefore suggested that Senate directs the Finance Minister to stop funding Local Governments without elected council officials.
The suggestion was supported by Senator Ali Ndume just as senator Abdulfatai Buhari (Oyo North) pointed out that
the Electoral Act should be amended to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct local government elections.
