Hundreds of Local Government
workers under the umbrella of Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees
(NULGE), on Tuesday in Ibadan protested to the Oyo State House of Assembly,
demanding the conduct of local government election.
The protesting workers noted that
the refusal of the state government in the last six years to conduct the
council election has adversely affected the development at the grassroots.
They also agitated for local
government autonomy, political, financial and administrative autonomy of the
local government.
NULGE President in Oyo state,
Alhaji Bayo Titilola-Sodo who led the workers submitted a letter conveying the
demands of the workers to the Speaker of the Oyo State Assembly, Hon. Michael
Adeyemo.
Titilola-Sodo while addressing
newsmen noted that the failure of the state government to conduct local
government election in the last six years had hampered the development of
council areas in the state.
He insisted that local
governments should be given political, financial and administrative autonomy as
the third tier of government in Nigeria.
According to him, the continued
imposition of caretaker committees on councils negates the constitutional
provision that democratically elected officials should administer local
governments.
He also called for the scrapping
of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs), saying the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be allowed to conduct elections
into all the 774 council areas in Nigeria.
He said, “It is the people that
gives mandate through election, if the election will be conducted into the
local government, it is not supposed to be State electoral commission but INEC.
“That’s how we can have true
democratically process, if it is by state electoral commission, it can never be
true representation of the people’s mandate “, NULGE President stressed.
On Financial autonomy,
Titilola-Sodo said NULGE wanted the Joint Account system with state government
abolished, describing the system as an avenue state governments are using to
divert local government allocations.
According to him, “immediately
local government allocations get into the account, they disappear leaving the
councils at the mercy of God. This has adversely affected development at the
grassroots”.
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