Date: 2021-04-06

The opposition political parties in Kwara State under the aegies of Inter-party Advisory Council have rejected the composition and inauguration of Transition Implementation Committees for the 16 local government areas of the state.

The opposition parties made their position known on Monday in a statement by the state Chairman of lPAC, Adebayo Akadi, and Secretary, Oyedeji Oyekunle.

According to them, the lPAC, which is an umbrella body of all other registered political parties in the state, said it was not carried along in the appointment of the TlC members.

The opposition parties alleged that the TlC members in the 16 local government areas were illegally constituted by the state government.

"The setting up of caretaker committee under whatever guise to replace the Constitutionally elected officers for local government administration as contained in the 1999 Constitution as amended was illegal," the parties said.

"We kick against any such plot because of the danger inherent in taking an extra-constitutional step of this nature under a democratic dispensation," they added.

The opposition parties said the IPAC in the state would not support anything that does not conform with the constitution.

The lPAC, therefore, called on the state government to urgently set a machinery in motion to constitute the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission to conduct local government election.

IPAC noted that this was the only way all the political parties could be carried along in conformity with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Reacting to the development, Alhaji Abdullateef Alakawa, the Special Adviser to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq on Political Matters, said the state government's decision on the inauguration of TlC members was constitutional "since there must not be vacuum in local government administration".

Alakawa said the state government was working round the clock to put in place the state independent electoral commission for the conduct of the local government council election, where all the registered political parties would participate.