Stop funding LGs with caretakers c’ttees , lawyer tells FG
A constitutional lawyer, Oba Maduabuchi (SAN) has called on the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) to direct the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) to stop the monthly allocations to local government areas with appointee chairmen.
The call follows Malami’s recent statement that the operation of caretaker committees at the local government level is illegal, unconstitutional and that all the affected state governments should disband such committees with immediate effect.
Malami’s legal advice was contained in a letter addressed to the Oyo state Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Oyewo Oyelewo calling on the affected state governments to revert to democratically elected government at the local government level as provided for in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In the said letter dated January 14, Malami had described the local government caretaker committees as illegal and unconstitutional, adding it amount to a breach of the provisions of Section 7(1) of the constitution (as amended).
In a statement in Abuja, Maduabuchi (SAN) stated that state governors have developed a nauseating propensity for treating the constitution with alarming levity.
He said that Section 7(1) of the constitution guarantees a system of democratically elected local government councils and urged the effected state governors to ensure the enthronement of elected local government councils under a law which provides for their establishment, structure, composition, finance and function.
“It is elementary knowledge that it is the same constitution that established the office of every state government and also that of the President. The same constitution also set up the three tiers of government all independent of each other unless as limited by the same constitution.
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“But, the first thing almost every governor does is to dissolve the local government councils as elected by the people and in their stead, appoint what is known as interim management to run these local government councils,” Maduabuchi asserted.
He observed that this virulent assault on the nation’s ground norm (the constitution) has resulted into various litigations resulting in the courts maintaining that governors do not have the vires to either dissolve duly elected local government chairmen or appoint interim management committees in their stead.
