By Ben Agande
ABUJA—House of Representatives, yesterday, called on the governors of the 25 states where caretaker chairmen run the affairs of local governments, to put measures in place to conduct elections into the councils.

This, according to the Reps, is to ensure that all local government chair-men are duly elected.

However, a prayer that allocations to such local governments be suspended was rejected as members argued that such action would be unconstitutional.

Sponsor of the motion, Friday Itulah, noted that local governments in 25 states of the federation “are run by state government illegally in the name of caretaker committees.”

He listed the states to include: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Yobe and Zamfara states.

According to Itulah, the system of appointing caretaker committees to head local government is alien to, and in violation of Section 7 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

He said: “If this is not checked, it may bring the country to a lawless state.”

In his contribution, Ahmed Nasir noted that the appointment of caretaker chairmen to run the affairs of local councils “is a clear violation of the constitution of Nigeria. The caretakers are not representatives of the people; there is no way we can have development in the local government areas if they are under caretaker.”

The minority Whip of the House, Samson Osagie, said by appointing caretaker chairmen, “the states are in breach of section seven of the constitution. The intention of having local government areas is to ensure that governance gets to the grassroots.”