NULGE Urges INEC To Take Over Conduct Of LG Elections
The National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), has called for the scraping of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take over the conduct of local government election across states of the federation.
The union also cautioned state Houses of Assembly against succumbing to pressure from some state governors who are working against the approval of the long awaited local government autonomy.
The union canvassed this position at a press conference in Akure, Ondo State, addressed by the Ondo Chairman of the union, Comrade Bunmi Eniayewu.
He said that the takeover became necessary to checkmate alleged electoral fraud by state governors.
According to him, INEC should be constitutionally empowered to conduct credible election for local governments, noting that the development would make the people at the grassroots to hold their representatives accountable.
Eniayewu said that those at the helm of affairs in the country should allow a bottom- up approach, saying that was the position of people at the grassroots.
He said, “This will make the people at the grassroots choose the candidate of their choice to preside over their affairs rather than for a governor waking up and deciding that some people should go and appoint a caretaker.
“The position of the grassroot people and what they are saying is that we must have free and fair elections in our local governments. Because if I am a governor and I appointed SIEC, there is no way they would not do my bidding.
“If you are doing good in your state as a party and a governor in power, it will be easy to convince the people to vote for your candidate. But what we have now, is a situation whereby a party in power conduct san election and at the same time clears all the local government elections at all cost in a state that has multiple party in their state and National Assembly.
Harping on the local government autonomy, Eniayewu said that state lawmakers were lawfully independent and should not allow any governor to use them to truncate local government autonomy that all Nigerians were yearning for.
He expressed confidence that the Ondo state house of Assembly and governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu were in support of rapid development at the grassroots and they would not work against autonomy for local government in the country.
On the recent mass retrenchment of over 4000 local government workers and 22000 teachers by the Kaduna state government, Comrade Eniayewu described the actions as inhuman, condemnable and should not be allowed to hold in the interest of the affected workers and their families.