Samuel Oyadongha
18 November 2008
The Action Congress in Bayelsa State has described as unconstitutional the extension and appointment of women to head the caretaker committee for the seven out of the eight original local government areas in the state at a time the political parties were prepared for council election earlier scheduled for this month.
Although no reason was given for the shelving of the council poll but the Secretary of the Action Congress, Mr. Ebikibina Miriki in an interview in Yenagoa said it might not be unconnected with what he called the 'deliberate' refusal of the state governor to release fund to the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) to conduct the long awaited election.
Condemning the action of the governor, the Action Congress noted, "The extension and appointment of seven women to the head the caretaker committee for the seven local government area in the state excluding Ekeremor when the political parties have long prepared, participated and complied with the guidelines issued by SIEC for the council polls is not only unconstitutional but abuse of due process and a clear demonstration of the insensitivity of the PDP-led government to the plight of the electorate who are clamouring for change."
The party wondered why the state governor who had repeatedly stressed the need for the accelerated development of the grassroots would suddenly jettison the conduct of the council polls as enshrined in the constitution for the people to elect leaders of their choice.
"It is certainly not in the best interest of the state to have an extension of another tenure of caretaker committees, having experienced one year of misused of public funds, financial indiscipline and misappropriation of funds meant for the development of the council areas to satisfy the selfish interest of loyalties of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, government functionaries, lawmakers and others," the party lamented.
The Action Congress therefore called on the state government to release without delay funds to the State Independent Electoral Commission to conduct a credible and hitch free election as stipulated in the nation constitution as the only recognized organ to operate the local government councils and not through unconstitutional appointments of caretaker committee chairmen.
This, according to the party, is inimical to the accelerated development of the council areas since the people are not given the opportunity to elect credible persons to pilot the affairs of the council areas.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
