By Our Correspondent in Ilorin
Coalition of Civi Society on autonomy of local goverment in Nigeria has called on the Kwara state government to constitute membership of the Kwara State Electoral Commission KWASIEC and conduct local government election by November.
The group said failure to carry the exercise, it would have no option than to head to court to challenge the governm action.
The Convenner of Coalition, Mallam Muss Aliu, who made the call at a press briefing, said it would amount to an aberration if local government election is not conducted by first of November in the state
“It is submitted that, having regard to the provisions of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended) and the Kwara State Local Government Electoral, Law we shall do the followings.
” Where the government refuses to reinstate the members of the illegally dissolved members of KWASIEC or constitutes a new one and inaugurate them on or before the 15th day of November, 2020, this illegality will be challenged in court immediately,
” It is also clear from the provisions of the law that, any person who is a registered member of a political party cannot be member(s) or Chairman of the Commission.
“That the Governor of Kwara State, having operated without democratically elected councils for more than 16 months, should set in motion immediately the machinery for the conduct of the local council election forthwith.
“it will be patently illegal for any Governor and specifically in this case, the Governor of Kwara State, to either constitute a Care-taker committee or transition committee, or even run the council by civil servants under the headship of the Director, Personnel and Management (DPM) as presently being done in Kwara State.
“The laws regulating and governing the conduct of local government elections in Kwara State are the 1999 Constitution as amended and the Kwara State Local Government Electoral Law Cap K 32 of 2006, the 1999 constitution as amended provides in section 7 (1) as follows:-
“The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this constitution guaranteed and accordingly, the government of every state shall subject to Section 8 of this constitution, ensure their existence under a law which provides for the establishment structure composition, finance and functions of such councils’.”
“A careful perusal of the provisions cited above, shows that the constitution or establishment of any form of administrative structure in the local councils by whatever name called aside from a democratically elected council is therefore illegal, null and void. From the above, therefore.
“To establish the illegality being committed by the Governor of Kwara State with regards to delay by the Governor in constituting the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, and subsequent holding of Local Government elections.
” We have looked at the provisions of Kwara State Local Government Electoral Law particularly ysection 7 (3) that states thus:-
“The elections referred to in subsection (2) of this section shall be held on a day not earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office”.
The legal implication of the above section are as follows:- Elections to the office of a local government Chairman must not be earlier than 60 days to the expiration of the present office holders’ tenure i.e. in the case in hand not earlier than 1st October 2020.
“Not later than 30 days to the expiration of the incumbent office holder and which in our case in Kwara should not be later than the 1st of November, 2020. The Incumbent office holders having been sworn into office on the 1st of December, 2018.
“From the above it is established that the election into local councils in Kwara State can validly and legally be conducted from the 2nd day of October, 2020 since the said date is not in any way earlier than 60 days to the expiration of the present office holders’ tenure.
“If, however, the government of Kwara State refuses to conduct the said election throughout the month of October, 2020; by Kwara State Local Government Electoral Law, the government must conduct the elections on or before the 1st of November, 2020 and failure to do this will definitely be in breach of the provisions of the laws and the government can be compelled through court action to do the needful. We are more than ready to just do that.
Having carefully explained the legal implications, we observe that the conclusions that can be deduced from the body language of the Governor are as follows:-
“Having failed to constitute the Kwara Independent Electoral Commission (hereinafter called the KWASIEC) till date, the likelihood of constituting the same this month is not feasible.
“If however, the said Commission is constituted this month, there is a very strong probability that inaugurating the Commission may take some few weeks if not months going by the Governor’s antecedents.
Therefore, if the said Commission is not constituted in October, 2020 and inaugurated immediately, the provisions of the Kwara State Local Government Electoral Laws would have been observed in the breach and a legal action to compel the Governor to act will immediately be instituted.
