The Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has called for the immediate scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) describing them as appendages of the state governments and threat to democracy.
President of the council, High Chief Peter Ameh, made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at a press briefing after a meeting of the council.
According to him, with the presence of SIECs, there could never be free, fair and credible elections at the local government levels.
Ameh, who is also the National Chairman of the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA), said that state governors have hijacked SIECs and use them in their own favour and the favour of their parties against the growth of robust opposition in the states and growth of smaller parties and the grassroots.
He said that the unfortunate trend has stifled development at the wards and local government levels and therefore demand for the full autonomy for local governments.
“IPAC makes a bold declaration today and without mincing any words, that the SIECs are the greatest democratic fraud foisted on our electoral democracy.
“This is the major reason we stress that the conduct of Local Government Elections becomes the responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“This is because from the conduct of state elections by SIECs thus far, it is impossible to get a free, fair and credible election under the existing arrangement.
“The current system encourages massive rigging because SIECs are under the wills and caprices of the State Governments and the Political Party in power in each state across Nigeria.
“As we have seen over the years, parties that control each state will stop at nothing to tailor the results in their favour. The opposition party in the state is always left with nothing.
“If local authorities have autonomy and tenure guaranteed, it will be easy for the people to hold them accountable and this will in turn bring development closer to the people and thus make for a robust democracy.
“What is going on presently at the local government level in Nigeria is a mockery of democracy; there is urgent need for all stakeholders to work together purposefully to establish the needed environment for good governance to grow and save our people from bad leadership,” Ameh said.
The council therefore called for the immediate amendment of Section 7 of the Constitution (as amended) relating to the place of Local Governments as the third tier of government to specifically guarantee the existence, establishment, structure, composition, finance, functions and tenure of Local Governments under the Constitution.
He lamented that one of the major functions of duly elected councillors is to make bye-laws for the good governance and development of all local government areas across Nigeria.
He said that constitutionally assigned function has been greatly eroded by the excessive interference and impunity of the governors who act with reckless impunity against elected local government chairmen.
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