The immediate past chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu State, Dr. Ben Nwoye, has applauded the Supreme Court for their verdict on autonomy of the local government areas in Nigeria, saying that the judgement has put a stop to the agelong illegality practiced by some state Governors.
JOURNALIST101 reports that the supreme court had declared as illegal and unconstitutional for the state Governors to have a say on how the funds of the local government areas are spent.
The court also ordered the federal government to stop sending the funds to non democratically elected council chairmen.
Speaking with JOURNALIST101 correspondent, Barr. Nwoye said the Supreme Court has taken the bull by the horn, while commending the bravery of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi.
“I salute the courage of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi because one wonders why in the past 24 years and counting, this anomaly has gone on unchecked.
“Our cerebral Attorney-General thought it wise to confront the illegality that had been perpetrated by the Governors- who were incidentally, all elected democratically, yet, their action ran against the basic principle of democracy.
“Some of them routinely, dissolve, democratically elected LG Chairmen. Majority of the Governors ensure the elected Council Chairmen and their Councillors were mere appendages and they see them as branches of their own government, thereby obliterating the third tier government as recognised by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
On the implication of the judgment, the APC Chieftain added that “by yesterday’s decision, the Supreme Court has once again proven that the court is the last hope of the common man.
“The judgement is huge, because now, the local government Chairmen and their councillors will be held directly accountable to the people and there will not be anymore room for excuses.
“The era of appointed caretaker Chairmen that can’t account for the 100s of millions they receive is gone.
“It’s unfortunate we have about 20 States without elected Chairmen and by this new judgement, all these states will have their allocations withheld until they’ve democratically elected Chairmen.
“This will trigger development in the local governments.”
Speaking about the call for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to take over the conduct of the local government elections, Dr. Nwoye disagrees.
According to him, “the issue isn’t about who conducts the election, it’s about the fairness of who conducts the election, INEC hasn’t done well either. So I’m among those who disagree completely with killing the institutions within the states.
“What we’ve to do is to support and grow State institutions that work because corrupt people are everywhere, both at the local, state and federal levels. We should be more concerned about ending corrupt electoral officers.
“We’ve seen what the professors have done, many of them have done so badly and you begin to wonder where their integrity lies.
“Promoting the debate that INEC should conduct the local government elections means empowering a body whose conducts has always been in question judging from the numerous elections that has been upturned by the court because they were illegally done.
“Nobody should be talking about INEC coming to takeover the conduct of election at state level, we should be talking about how to: empower the institution; empower the right people to conduct good election; ensure free and fair election as we see in other places.
He also commended the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu for throwing his weight behind this revolutionary suit which will maintained, will bring an uncommon development to the rural areas.
