The recent sacking of duly elected local government council chairmen and subsequent appointment of caretaker committee by the government of Kaduna, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States calls to mind the July 2014 ruling of the Supreme Court that state governors do not have the powers to sack their elected officials.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/you-ve-no-power-to-sack-elected-lg-officials-s-court-tells-govs/183380/
The apex court, while delivering judgment in the case of the removal of 148 elected local government officials by the Abia State Government in 2006, unanimously had held that the action was illegal and amounted to “official recklessness” by the governor

Subsequently, it was agreed that federal allocation to councils without elected officials should stop. Many analysts had felt that if the judgment of the Supreme Court was strictly complied with, it then could be the tonic needed to revive local government administration in country.

While the illegalities were going on in these states, it did not take long for Nigerians to know that all the governors were after were to ensure that their cronies and proxies take charge of the local governments. Currently, over 25 state governors have in the last three years either unilaterally or through their Houses of Assembly dissolved democratically-elected local government administrations in the country.

The trend has always been that as soon as a new governor, especially from the opposition party comes to power, the local government structure will be dissolved. And any chairman who refuses to allow his/her federal allocation to be tampered with gets the boot.


The actions of the affected state governments are in breach of the clear wordings of the constitution by setting up illegal entities known as caretaker committees. It averred that in all the states concerned, the emergence of democratically-elected officials was not being allowed at the third tier of political administration.

The constitution made provision for only democratically elected local governments. So, if the local government is democratically-elected and they have a fixed tenure, then nobody can remove them. Just as nobody can remove the State House of Assembly, just as nobody can remove the National Assembly until their period lapses.


So, what the state governors - Wike, El Rufia and Udom Emmanuel are doing is illegal. It was contrary to the constitution. They are exercising powers they don’t have. The Supreme Court ruling must be quoted and upheld. All allocations to these caretaker committees must stop and elections must hold within 30 days in the affected states.

Additional excerpts from www.thisdaylive.com/articles/as-reprieve-comes-the-way-of-councils/183709/

Yeah, u r right. Even though I nor read am.

Politics is crap, all man for himself. Fight to make ur life better and forget about government.

I go read later

The supreme court is still open, any aggrieved party can go back to get justice.

That wasn't an election period!