Coalition of Civil Society on autonomy of local goverment in Nigeria has called on the Kwara state government to constitute the Kwara State Electoral Commission KWASIEC and conduct local government election by November.
The Convenner of Coalition of Civil Society on Autonomy of local government in Nigeria Mallam Muss Aliu who made the call at a press briefing organised by a Coalition of Civil Society on Autotomy of local goverment in Nigeria said it was an aberration if local government election 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 sixteen 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.” He added
According to Muss Aliu, “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 section 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 the month of 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.
“Section 20 of the Kwara State Local Government Electoral Law deals with the issuing of notice of elections by the commission and states as follows:-
“Not less than 14 days before the date appointed for holding of an election under this law, the commission shall publish a notice within the state:- Stating the date of the election and appointing the place of which nomination papers are to be delivered.
“When section 20(1) is read together with section 7 (3) of the law, one will discover that for the government of Kwara State to follow this law to the letter, the KASIEC has to be constituted and inaugurated not later than 31st of October, 2020. But then the Government of Kwara State has in its hand the illegal dissolution of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) constituted on the 16th of June 2017. The National Industrial Court of Nigeria in its judgment of 29th September 2020 declared illegal the dissolution of KWASIEC on 20th of August 2019. The summary of the judgment delivered by Hon Justice K. D. Damulak is: that the removal of the claimant is unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void. The Court also held that the claimant is entitled to be reinstated to his office as member, Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission and be paid all his salaries and allowances from August 2019 until the end of his tenure in 2022.
“Our view is that there are plethora of decided legal authorities on the illegality of dissolution of tenured statutory Commission appointments in Nigeria. If this one goes on appeal the result cannot be different and the Governor by going on appeal will only be buying time and in the process waste the time of the people and crumble democracy at the local level in Kwara State.
“The Governor of Kwara is better advised to reinstate the dissolved commission and immediately set in motion the machinery for the conduct of the already due Local Government election in Kwara State. However, should the Governor decides to go on appeal, we shall on behalf of the people of Kwara state join issues with him at the appeal.
“It is customary in the history of KWASIEC to appoint rabid persons or even card carrying and personal devotees of the Governor as the Chairman and Members of KWASIEC. This is offensive to Sections 12, 13 and 14 of the Kwara State Local Government Electoral Law. Chairman and members of the commission must be apolitical. Therefore, if any of the political allies of the Governor or the government of the day is nominated to be Chairman and/or members of the commission, individual or group can challenge the said appointment in Court.” He added.
“It should be noted that at the dawn of the administration of Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrazak, the elected council he met was dissolved. Since then, he has been running the affairs of the sixteen Local Government Areas using the Civil Servants at the Local Government level. From the month of May 2019 to the month of September 2020 the total sum of N41,251,620,745.68 had accrued to the sixteen Local Government Councils of Kwara State.
“The government of Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrazak must account for the sum of Forty One Billion, Two Hundred and Fifty One Million, Six Hundred and Twenty Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty-Five Naira and sixty eight Kobo (N41,251,620,745.68) representing the allocations of the sixteen Local Government councils of Kwara State for past sixteen months (May, 2019-August, 2020).
Where this is not done, individuals and group like our own, will be justified to go to appropriate court to compel the Governor to account for the money of the sixteen Local Government Councils of the State. That is exactly what we shall do unless the governor discharges the duty of accountability he owes the people immediately.” He said
