Senate asks FG to withhold allocation of LGs without elected officials

Adekunle Adesuji, Abuja

Senate on Friday asked the Federal government to withhold allocation of local government areas without elected officials.
Senate decision was sequel to a motion sponsored by the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro who expressed dissatisfaction with the recent dissolution of elected councils in Benue state.
Leading debate on the motion, the minority leader noted that replacing democratically elected council chairmen is against the 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended
He said , ” in placing Caretaker Committees to replace Elected Councils is an aberration and alien to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended);
“Aware that Section (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) guarantees a system of local government by Democratically Elected Councils;
“Also aware that it is the Constitutional responsibility of every state to ensure the existence of Local
Government Councils by law.”
He said there is an existing court judgement preventing government of Benue state from dissolving the council and the state government is yet to appeal the judgement .
The motion was seconded by Senator Victor Umeh who lamented that the issue has continued to undermine the local government system in Nigeria .
He urged the parliament to put a stop to dissolution of local councils in the country in flagrant disobedience to the 1999 constitution as amended.
He said, “This issue has continued to undermine the local government’s system, that is expected to have elected officials
“It is sad that this has given birth to mismanagement of the local governments , Removing local government officials and replacing them with care taker committees.
Some governments have continued to do this which is not allowed in the constitution. So this parliament must put a stop to this flagrant breeches of the constitution.”
After debate on the motion, Senate also condemned dissolution of local councils in Benue and other states in disregard to the 1999 constitution concerning local councils in Nigeria.