Date: 2016-11-01

*PDP threatens legal action, insists on elections

Lobbying and the attendant grumblings arising from frustrations over the countdown to the end of the tenure of local government councils in Kwara State have thrown the All Progressives Congress (APC) into confusion.

Besides, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is warming up to drag the state government to court should the government proceed to appoint caretaker committees to man the councils after the expiration of the term of the present occupants on November 10.

Although the chairmen of the 16 councils of the state have less than 10 days to go, nothing concrete has been done by the government to have a new set of elected officials to take over from them.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Communications, Dr. Mujideen Akorede told The Guardian that the government would make its position known on the development after the expiration of the tenure of offices of the council chairmen, adding "we are not ready to utter any word on it for now." However, Government House sources said that the government might eventually settle for the option of caretaker committees at the end of the day because of the 'present realities.'

"The truth of the matter is that the state has not gotten the financial muscles to conduct any election at that tier of government for now. Besides, there should be a reform at that level first before you start talking of any election. So the TIC option will be the option the government will settle for," the sources volunteered.

The indications are that a caretaker committee would be appointed by the State governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed and this, sources hinted informed the directive to the ruling party that a list of possible replacement be drawn.

The Guardian learnt that following this development, the outgoing councils' chairmen have commenced lobbying to be retained as the caretaker chairmen. But while they are jostling to remain in office, other members of the APC are positioning themselves to take over from them.

A source claimed that the Governor has told the council chairmen to vacate their offices to give room for more dynamism and to accommodate others who had also worked for the success of the party in the state. Already, the leadership of the party has demanded names to be submitted to it from across the 193 wards of the state.

Furthermore, one of the sources alleged that the chairmen have gone as far as Abuja to plead with the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to intervene to no avail.

Said the source: "They (the chairmen) went to the Senate President in Abuja to help them prevail on the Governor to accept their proposition. But Saraki told them to go back home and do the bidding of the Governor."

Already, the development has pitched the two groups - those for and opposed to the elongation of the chairmen's tenure against each other.

According to a member of the party, there is discontent among the APC members sympathetic to the embattled chairmen. But the Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari has dismissed the claims of a crisis as untrue.

For the APC spokesman, "there is no brewing crisis" in the party over the nomination process to the proposed Transition Implementation Committee for the councils chairmen.

His words: "It is utterly untrue that there exists a brewing crisis in our party over the appointment of persons into the Transition Implementation Committee. Therefore, we urge members of our party in Kwara State to disregard the misleading rumour.

"While it is true that the leadership of the party has requested for the submission of names across the 193 wards in the state, we want to emphasise that we have experienced party administrators in our party. Therefore, we can assure party members and the people of Kwara State that the nomination process into the proposed Transition Implementation Committee will be hitch-free. The party will ensure justice and equity in the entire process."

He also assured party members who tirelessly worked for the success of the party during the elections that their contributions will not be in vain.

"As a party, we believe that the idea of the Transition Implementation Committee (TIC) for the 16 local government councils in the state is in the best interest of Kwarans, considering the fact that our State cannot afford to spend over N1bn on Council elections in the face of economic reality," Buhari stated.

Besides, the Special Adviser to Governor on Political Affairs, Alhaji Usman Bibire Ajape asserted that despite the issue, the party in the state was waxing stronger by the querying: "What do you mean by crisis in our party?"

"We are one big family and we are assuring members of the public of our resolve to continue to run the state in the best way possible. There is no rancour among us and there will not be any."

Nonetheless, the opposition PDP disclosed that it was contemplating a legal action against the State government on the decision to subtly allow a caretaker arrangement as against the conduct elections into the councils when the chairmen vacate their offices. "It will be a daylight robbery for the APC to shun the need for the conduct of elections into the offices. We may opt for a legal angle to resolve it. The state belongs to us all. We will resist every attempt within what the law allows to run it like a family thing," Chief Iyiola Oyedepo, the State chairman of PDP said.