Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The vice chairmen of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) have threatened to sue Anambra State Government over its refusal to conduct local government election in the past 13 years.
This decision was one of the resolutions adopted by the vice chairmen when their National Working Committee met at Abuja over the weekend.
They accused successive governments in Anambra State of running local government administration in the past 13 years without democratically elected council chairmen.
The body likened the local government area caretaker committees installed by Governor Willie Obiano to a conduit pipe to siphon money.
The council vice chairmen were also critical of the unilateral powers wielded by some state governors to remove from office democratically local government council chairmen.
The chairman of the body, Hon. Lawrence Onuchukwu, who read out the resolutions, listed Kwara, Ogun, Oyo, Imo and Gombe as some of the defaulting states.
The ALGON vice chairmen resolved that henceforth, no governor should dissolve any local government area administration in their respective states.
“The body strongly advises the governors who are yet to conduct local government election to do so because local governments are the closest to the people, and there is no way a government will continue to run an administration without elected officers of local government,” Onuchukwu said.
Onuchukwu noted that the Supreme Court had in 2016 pronounced that no governor has the power to dissolve an elected local government administration and replace them with caretaker committees.
The apex court described such abuse of power as executive recklessness, which contravenes Section 7 (1) of the Constitution from which the state House of Assemblies derives their power to enact the local government law.
Onuchukwu, who is the vice chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) warned the affected governors and others planning to dissolve some local government administrations and install caretaker committees in their various states to desist from the act.
