Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara state has condemned the alleged delay in conducting local government elections in the state, describing it as “continued encroachment and usurpation of local government administration in the state”.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin on Monday, the state chairman of the opposition party, Alhaji Babatunde Mohammed, said that the present All Progressives Congress (APC) government had allegedly planned to shift conduct of the local government election to 2025 “against the standing order of courts of law”.
The Kwara PDP chairman also blamed the alleged delay in conducting the LG poll in the state as part of the reasons for the situation in the local government areas of the state.
“Local government operations have been so far stalled, with our people at the grassroots denied of the hitherto dividends of democracy and seriously bearing the brunt. The rural parts of the state have been enveloped by insecurity, violent crimes, gangsterism, kidnappings, and wanton killing of our people, including missionaries, clergymen, and farmers, as a result of a lack of legally recognized structures at the grassroots which can use peculiarities of each local government to arrest this ugly trend.
“Despite several concerns raised and court orders to that effect, the Kwara state government has been defiant and individualistic in its conduct”, he said.
The main opposition party in the state also said that the state government had planned to alter some vital sections of the existing local government laws in the state in an alleged bid to shift the conduct of the LG poll in the state to 2025.
“Furthermore, we condemn, in strong terms, the attempt to alter section 20 (1) of the LG law to increase notification of the election date by KWASIEC from the existing ninety (90) days to 360 days. If this bill is passed into law, the LG elections will automatically be shifted to the year 2025, two years to the expiration of the second term of this administration.
“How Governor Abdulrahman will be so comfortable allowing illegal TIC chairmen, who ordinarily are not known to our laws and constitution, to continue presiding over LG councils for almost eight (8) years is something that should baffle every right-thinking Kwaran”.
The party chairman said that participation of the PDP in the local government election in the state would depend largely on the integrity of people who are saddled with the responsibility of conducting the LG poll (Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC)) as well as a result of consultation that would be held with leaders and stakeholders in the party.
He described members of the KWASIEC, as constituted by the state government, as card-carrying members of the APC, who he said are also loyal to the governor.
He advised that the electoral body should start to show seriousness in conducting the LG poll by putting machinery in motion for its preparation, which the opposition party chairman said should be held in November/December 2023.
