Senators on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, on Friday joined the opposition parties in the upper house to move against one of its governors, Hyacinth Alia, of Benue State over what they called “arbitrary dissolution of local government councils” warning him against “damaging democracy.”
This was sequel to a motion brought to the floor of the red chamber during plenary by Senator Abba Moro, (PDP – Benue Central).
Moro, who recently emerged as the Minority Leader on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said allowing his governor to see to the dissolution of “democratically elected local government councils” will strengthen attacks on the constitution as the grundnorm.
Advertisement
He argued that since the constitution is the fons et origo, dissolution of LGAs has not been provided in it to empower the Benue Governor or other state governors from dissolving them.
Former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, (APC Edo North) in supporting the motion condemned the governor saying, “I stand here to support the spirit and letters of the motion. If it is wrong it is wrong.
“I think it is clear the Supreme Court of the land besides the express provision of the Constitution…we can be accused of being lawmakers but not judges but the highest court of the land has pronounced time and time again that governors do not have powers either to dissolve an elected council nor do they have powers to appropriate and spend money in the name of the local governments
“Each time we turn the other way, we inflict huge damage to the fabric of our democracy.
“I thought that I should stand up because I am not in the PDP but this is not about partisanship. If it wrong it is wrong.
“I was a governor. I was elected and I met the caretaker councils in place even though it was clear that these caretakers were rigged into office, but since it was regularised by the courts, we accepted to live with it until we can improve the system.
“So I had to live with elected local government chairmen who were from another political party until their tenure was exhausted. I resisted all pressures from my party leaders to dissolve them. Because if one can dissolve the other, we too can be dissolved.
“We all have a shared responsibility to defend the core principles and values of democracy.
“Governors are executive but those elected people have executive chairmen, they also have executive powers within the provision of the Nigerian constitution.
“I think it is time this Senate lends its voice and forcefully persuade the minister of finance that wherever there’s no democratically elected council chairmen, monies due to those councils should not be released to the arms of government that does not exist.
“When we do that, that will be a great amour against governors with those directorial tendencies. It doesn’t matter which party they come from, this Senate must stand for democracy regardless of party affiliation.”
Senator Ali Ndume, (APC-Borno South) in his contribution supporting the motion said, “This is a very serious threat to democracy.”
He said even though he supports the motion, “All we do here is advisory. Whether you agree or not, all we do is advisory.”
He noted that “when there’s a breach of the constitution, the appropriate place to go is court.”
He stressed that “The best thing is to condemn such action because it’s undemocratic but in order to give it more strength is to approach the court.
“Once the court declares that such action is illegal, then we have solved the problem.
“Unless we have to amend the constitution again, further. The constitution is already clear that there is no provision for Caretaker because it is a strange thing in the constitution.”
He added, “If we agree that the ministry of finance should not release the money to them, I think that is an option that we have here as a national assembly since we have constitutional oversight responsibility for the ministries.”
In his contribution, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, (APC-Oyo North) also frowned at the dissolution of the LGAs by the governor suggesting that, “We should be able to amend the aspect that gives the governors the power to be doing the local government elections.
“We should try to take that election back to INEC. That again will strengthen democracy.”
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who presided over plenary said what’s happening in Benue must not be allowed to stand, saying he “condemned it totally.”
He said it would be ideal to amend the constitution but “before then, we can establish a National Electoral Commission for Local Government just as you have the State Electoral Commission to conduct elections into the local chairmen and local councils.”
The Senate thereafter passed a resolution condemning “the arbitrary dissolution of elected local government councils in Benue State and other states of the federation.”
The Senate in the resolution also urged “the governor of Benue State to adhere to his oath of office, to obey the rule of law, and defend the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.”
The upper house also in its resolution called on the governor “to review the dissolution of the elected councils and constitution of caretaker committees and to reinstate the area elected local government councils.”
Also, the red chamber “urged the federal government to withhold statutory allocations to local government councils that were not democratically elected across the nation.”
Akpabio said, “It is not yet over until we can have future discussion on this and then bring up legislative procedure to bring the practice to an end.”