Date: 2020-01-30

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara state has sent a written petition to the attorney general and minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, on what it called illegal dissolution and or suspension of the duly elected local government officials in the state.

The party in the petition dated January 28, 2020, said its petition was informed by the position of the Justice Minister in an illegal dissolution of elected LG administration by some governors across the country.

The PDP in the petition signed by its state chairman, Engineer Kola Shittu, noted that "on the assumption of office of the executive governor of Kwara State, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq in May 2019, swiftly without recourse to the extant constitutional provisions and judicial pronouncement/decision handed down by the highest Court in the land suspended all the duly elected LG chairmen, vice-chairmen, and all the 193 councilors in the 16 LGAs in Kwara state on spurious, baseless, and unfounded allegations of financial misappropriation by the local government chairmen in a purported petition written by a faceless individual.

"We wish to state emphatically and unambiguously that in the name and or office of the vice-chairmen and the councilors were conspicuously absent and not mentioned in the said petition, they have not been invited or questioned by anyone or authority till date since June 2019.

"To the utmost chagrin and dismay of everyone in the state in a single sweep, the elected chairmen, vice-chairmen, and all the 193 councilors were suspended and barred from assuming their respective duties and offices to date", he said.

The PDP intimated the minister of Justice that the suspended local government council officials were duly elected into their respective offices in 2017 and had been performing their duties and function before their unlawful and unconstitutional suspension for six months, effective from June 18, 2019, and for a further illegal extension for another period of six months effective from December 17, 2019.

While requesting the minister of Justice to prevail on Governor Abdulrazaq to immediately reinstate the vice-chairmen and the councilors, the party noted that "whatever is the said and imaginary offenses of the council chairmen, this cannot and should not be visited on their respective vice chairmen and the councilors in all the local government areas across the state who have not been said to have committed any infraction by the virtue of their offices".

The party further asked the minister of Justice to order Governor Abdulrazaq to swear in all the vice-chairmen as the substantive chairmen to act in place of the respective suspended chairmen, who were petitioned so that people at the grassroots can continue to enjoy dividends of democracy they voted for in 2017.