A group, Human Rights and Judgement Enforcement Advocates, has urged state governors to respect the Supreme Court judgement on autonomy of local government councils or face mass protests.
The group’s chairman, Barrister Alfa Mohammed, said at a news conference in Minna yesterday that the government had not conformed with provisions of the 1999 constitution and the Supreme Court judgment on the tenure of local governments and their autonomy.
While urging state governors to respect and implement the judgement, he said with the autonomy, local governments would be able to effectively address poverty and insecurity, support local farmers to improve food security and contribute to the welfare of Nigerians.
“The present situation has made it impossible for local governments to render their constitutional services such as the construction of markets, health centers and drainages among others,” he said, “We challenge the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Senator Hope Uzodinma, to prove that APC governors are aligned with President Bola Tinubu’ s poverty eradication efforts by effecting total autonomy for councils not later than a day before the next federal allocation is distributed.”
He threatened that members of the group would lead grassroots protests in solidarity with the masses if the situation does not change before August 2025.
“Specifically, we call on Governor Bago of Niger State to suspend the planned November local government election as it would amount to prematurely terminating the tenure of the incumbent council executives,” he said, “As a concerned group of citizens, we are presently in the process of initiating legal proceedings to seek interpretation of relevant sections of the Electoral Act 2022 among other reliefs.”
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