- Asks Tinubu, Fagbemi to halt Kwara LG allocation to address anomalies
The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Kwara State, has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, to halt the disbursement of Local Government allocation to the Kwara State Government pending when the government will address the issues affecting local government administration in the state.
The party kicked against a bill before the state House of Assembly, seeking the postponement of the LG election to the year 2025, and called for the conduct of council elections without further delay.
It also expressed worry over the continued usurpation of local government administrations under the government of Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq-led All Progressive Congress in Kwara State, a development; it said has stalled grassroots development and worsened the security situation in the state.
Kwara PDP State Chairman, Rt. Hon. Babatunde Mohammed, said this at a press briefing held on Monday, 30th October 2023, at the Party State Secretariat in Ilorin, the state capital.
Mohammed lamented that despite several court orders and concerns expressed by well-meaning people of Kwara, the State government remains defiant in its conduct.
“You all will recall that immediately after the APC came on board in May 2019, the first casualty of its rascality and abuse of power were the sixteen elected council chairmen who were based on politically motivated trump-up charges, illegally dissolved with the help of the Kwara State House of Assembly which has so far presented itself as a tool in the hands of Governor Abdulrahman led executive.
“This action was in flagrant disobedience to court orders barring the state governor or any of its representatives, including the House of Assembly from suspending or dissolving democratically elected council chairmen or interfering with their financial activities until the lawful expiration of their tenure.
“Apart from reckless disregard for the court rulings, the Abdulrahman-led government also replaced the sacked chairmen with his surrogates who were tagged Transition Implementation Committee (TIC) chairmen to illegally superintend local government administrations and their resources in the state.
“This action, which was an affront to our judiciary and constitution, was not only condemned by well-meaning Kwarans, including some members of the APC but also challenged in court by a popular Kwara-based civil society organization, the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENETSUD), which is reputed for drawing public attention to bad government policies, financial recklessness and misappropriations and anti peoples programmes.
While stressing AbdulRazaq’s disregard for constitutional orders, it noted the government’s refusal to obey the 2021 Kwara State High Court ruling, in which Justice Hassan Gegele faulted the dissolution of democratically elected chairmen, and ordered the immediate dissolution of the TIC members as well as refund of all remunerations paid to them, a decision that was upheld at the Court of Appeal in 2022.
“This is close to two years after the Court of Appeal judgment and close to three years after that of the trial court, Governor Abdulrahman, in a crash show of rascality and impunity, has not only refused to obey the court orders but has also allowed his unlawful agents continue lording on local governments for more than 3 years.”
Mohammed also faulted the ruling party for deliberately frustrating the litigation process by approaching the Supreme Court in April 2022 but refusing to file any brief to allow the Supreme Court to pick a date for a hearing.
Describing it as a blatant affront to the judiciary, the PDP chairman called on the AGF, Fagbemi, to use his office to address the anomaly.
The PDP also faulted the constituted board of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC), accusing the ruling party of appointing card-carrying members of the APC.