A court in Akwa Ibom State has declared as
illegal, the local government caretaker
committees in the state.
The 31 local governments in the state have
been run for about two years now by
chairpersons handpicked by the state
governor, Udom Emmanuel.
A State High Court at the Abak Judicial
Division presided by Justice Ezekiel Enang
declared on Tuesday that the setting up of
the caretaker committees was unlawful
because there were no provisions for such
within the Nigerian Constitution.
The court accordingly ordered Governor
Emmanuel to dissolve the caretaker
committees immediately. A lawyer, Nsikak
Akai of the Nsikak Akai and Associates, Abak,
who filed the suit against the Akwa Ibom
State government and Mr. Emmanuel, told
PREMIUM TIMES that he checked through the
Nigerian constitution but could not find any
provisions that empower the governor to
set up caretaker committees to run the local
governments in the state.
Mr. Akai said he was happy for the
judgment, describing it as a victory for
democracy and the people of the state.
“For once, Akwa Ibom people can hold their
governor to account subsequently
whenever a governor intends to or even
contemplate appointing caretaker
committees in the state,” he said.
“The grievance we had was that the
persons that were being appointed as
caretakers were only answerable to their
benefactors who see them as stooges, while
the people bear the brunt.
“Once we have elected representatives at
the grassroots level, then we can hold them
to account,” Mr Akai said. However, the
Commissioner of Justice in the state,
Uwemedimo Nwoko, said the state
government would appeal the judgment.
When a reporter reminded Mr. Nwoko that
the grounds for the judgment was that
caretaker committee running the affairs of
the local government areas was alien to the
Nigerian Constitution, he responded, “That
may be so, but the truth is that there are
certain circumstances that make the setting
up of transition committees applicable in
this matter.”
Mr. Nwoko said he told the court that the
inability of the state government to conduct
the local council election was because the
Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, since 2012 has failed to make available
to the Akwa Ibom State Independent
Electoral Commission, AKISIEC, the voters’
registers in the state.
“It would have been improper and it would
have disenfranchised thousands of people
in Akwa Ibom State if we had gone back to
use the 2012 voters’ registers which INEC
itself has discarded,” said Mr Nwoko, who
added that the caretaker committees were
established after a law to that effect was
duly passed by the state House of Assembly.
The commissioner’s remarks, however,
contradicts what Governor Emmanuel said
in May – that the state lacked funds to
conduct local elections.
“The prevailing economic situation is not
conducive for us to conduct local
government elections,” the governor had
told journalists during a press briefing at
the Government House, Uyo.
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