Opposition parties kick against extending tenure of TIC chairmen in Kwara

Opposition parties in Kwara have kicked against the extension of tenure of the 16 local government caretaker chairmen by the state government.

Newsverge reports that Gov Abdulfatah Ahmed had on Tuesday, extended the tenure of the Transitional Implementation Committee for the local councils in the state, by three months.

The caretaker committees were inaugurated on Nov. 15, 2016, and were to serve for three months, which expired on Feb. 14.

The governor, in a letter to the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Dr. Ali Ahmad, said the extension was to ensure continuity of administration pending the conduct of elections into the local councils.

But the leaders of the opposition parties, who spoke to Newsverge in Ilorin, described the extension as illegal and a way of denying the people, the choice of electing new council chairmen.

The state’s Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Rex Olawoye, said his party would do everything possible to thwart the tenure extension of the council chairmen in the state.

He said that his party had initially opposed the constitution of the Transition Implementation Committees (TIC), adding that the tenure elongation had now justified its earlier opposition.

Olawoye, who said his party would act at the appropriate time on the issue, said that it might consider legal action against the government.

Speaking in the same manner, state Secretary of the Labour Party, Mr AbdulMumini Onagun, said his party had always advocated for the conduct of Local Government Elections in the state.

Onagun said that anything different from council election was an act of illegality and that his party did not support the extension.

He called on the state governor to comply with the provisions of the constitution by conducting elections into the local councils in the state.