Call A Halt To Bill Seeking To Amend LG Electoral Law, Kwara PDP Tells Parliament …Demands Dissolution Of KWAISEC Board
As the Kwara state House of Assembly gets set to hold a public hearing on the bill seeking to amend the Kwara state Local government Electoral Law Cap K32, tomorrow, Tuesday, October 31, 2023, the state PDP on Monday urged the parliament to pause action on this, submitting that the process that led to the bill scaling through first and second readings is ‘faulty’ while alleging that the Speaker, Hon Yakubu Salihu Danladi , has failed to observe the ‘standing rules’ .
The public hearing expected to be held tomorrow is jointly organized by the House Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Judiciary and the Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
Presiding over the press conference held by the party at its state secretariat in Ilorin, the state capital, which was attended by journalists including Team@orientactualmags.com, the state chairman, Hon Babatunde Mohammed said the party was reliably informed that apart from the Speaker who read out the content of the bill during a plenary session, no one among the legislators was given a copy of the bill in question.
He noted that having at different times served as Chairman, House Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Judiciary , Chief Whip, Deputy Speaker and Speaker of the state House of Assembly, what Speaker Yakubu Salihu Danladi has allegedly done is according to him an ‘anomaly’.
PDP has also accused Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of coming up with a ploy to buy time and delay conduct of LG elections in the state until 2025.
‘We therefore admonish Mr. Speaker to halt further action on this evil bill which tends to continue the enslavement of our local governments and ensure that all lawmakers have copies of the bill to contribute their knowledge and make informed input that represents the will of their constituencies and constituents.
Furthermore, we condemn in strong terms, the attempt to alter section 20 (1) of the LG law to increase notification of the election date by KWASIEC from the existing ninety (90) days to three hundred and sixty days. If this bill is passed into law the LG elections will automatically be shifted to the year 2025, two years to the expiration of the second term of this administration.
How Governor Abdulrahman will be so comfortable allowing illegal TIC chairmen, who ordinarily are not known to our laws and constitution, to continue presiding over LG councils for almost eight (8) years is something that should baffle every right-thinking Kwaran.
The PDP in Kwara state joins other stakeholders in the state to demand the immediate suspension of this anti-democratic bill which aimed at further crippling grassroots governance and subjecting their monthly allocations to the sinister control and consumption of the governor through his illegal TIC chairmen’ he said.
Alhaji Mohammed has also called for the dissolution of the board of the Kwara state Independent Electoral Commission (KWAISEC) submitting that the party does not have trust and confidence in the electoral commission members with regard to conducting a free and fair election.
‘A careful study of the structure of the board has reflected that the board is filled with card-carrying members of APC who were carefully chosen to do the bidding of the governor and his party, the APC. This was evident in the opening remarks of the board chair, Muhammed Okanla Baba where he was quoted as saying that he and his team are grateful to and will not disappoint the governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who only appointed them to compensate them for their roles in their party.
The KWASIEC board chairman’s statement alone has eroded the commission, and its natural integrity, and cast doubt on its political will to deliver free, credible, and fair elections for the state. It is on this basis that Kwara PDP passes a vote of no confidence in the present body of KWASIEC and calls for its immediate dissolution’ he said.
The party also faulted the idea of having members of the Transition Implementation Committees (TIC) getting retained as heads of the third tier of government in the state calling this ‘disobedience of court order’.
He also said elected local government Chairmen who were removed from office, were ‘the first casualty of rascality and abuse of power in 2019’ while submitting that the third tier of government has never been left without elected leaders for this long in Kwara state since 1988.
While citing Justice Hassan Gegele of the Kwara state High Court’s ruling of March 2021 and the appeal court ruling of April 2022, that sacked the TIC members, the party said their continued stay in office is illegal.
The state government has also according to him appealed the ruling but didn’t allegedly take necessary action to pick a date for hearing at the Supreme Court.
‘Our party considers this as a blatant affront to our judiciary and we call on the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, who is also an indigene of Kwara, to immediately use his good offices to expedite actions on this in order to protect the sanctity of the rule of law’ he submitted- Team@orientactualmags.com
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