A few days after the Federal Government sued the 36 state Governments at the Supreme Court seeking full autonomy for local governments, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi has called for the scrapping of state electoral commissions.
He disclosed this in Abuja on Monday at a national dialogue organised by the House of Representatives.
According to the AGF, 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.”
During the event, President Bola Tinubu said his administration is committed to strengthening the local government system.
The President was represented by the Minister of Defence, Muhammed Abubakar.
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.
