The attorney general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, Lateef Fagbemi, has called for the scrapping of state electoral commissions. The AGF stated this on Monday at a national dialogue organised by the house of representatives.
He argued that the functions and powers of the SIEC should be transferred to the independent national electoral commission (INEC) stating that the state independent electoral commission remains an appendage of the incumbent governor and it behaves as such.
“Many have proposed that there is need for scrapping the state electoral commission. Their functions and powers should be transferred to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) because the state independent electoral commission remains an appendage of the incumbent governor and it behaves as such.
“I have not seen any state where local government election is conducted, however poorly the governor may have performed that will not return the members of the political party as winners of the election.”
Fagbemi’s comments come days after the ministry of justice filed a suit against state governors at the supreme court on local government autonomy.
The federal government is asking the Supreme Court to stop the remitting of local government funds to states and to stop the 36 state governments from the disbandment of elected local government chairmen and replacing them with caretaker committees.
The president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was represented by the minister of defence, Muhammed Abubakar, at the event, said his administration is committed to strengthening the local government system. According to the president, the degradation of that level of governance has contributed significantly to the inability of the country to address security and developmental threats.
