——Says Existence of council Administrators without any backing of law is, illegal, illegitimate 

 

The Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution,  in Kogi State has described the existence of council Administrators in 21 councils of the state one month after the expiration of the tenure without any extension as illegal and illegitimate, saying that it is an illegality within illegality.

 

In a statement signed by the Executive Director of the Center,  Comrade Idris Miliki, calls 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, adding that it is the responsibility of the State Assembly to make laws for the smooth running of Local Government Councils in the state.

 

The statement which reads in part said “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 Caterkership 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, passed a resolution affirming the provisions of the Constitution that Caterkership at Local Government Councils 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.

 

Miliki however noted that it is more worrisome and condemnable 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.

 

According to him the Governor 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.

 

“Then 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 condemn the non-extension of this illegal Administrators of Local Government Councils, which must be done immediately without further delay.