By Obansa Ibrahim, Lokoja
A civil society organization, Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR), has called for the immediate dissolution of caretaker chairmen in the twenty one local councils in Kogi state.
In a statement issued in Lokoja on Tuesday, the Executive Director of CHRCR, Comrade Idris Miliki Abdul said “the caretaker chairmen put in place on the 5th July, 2024 by Kogi State House of Assembly for six months can no longer stand, as many of these chairmen maybe willing to contest for the same elections through their political party, which will bring contradiction and further promote illegality and give unnecessary advantage.”
This was coming after Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission (KOSIEC) released timetable for the conduct of local government elections in the state, scheduled for the 19th October, 2024.
CHRCR called on the Governor Usman Ododo to remove the caretaker chairmen immediately and replace them with the Directors of Local Government (DLGs) across the State.
The CSO stated that the DLGs will hold sway for the next three months, pending the conduct of the election of new chairmen.
It noted that DLGs superintending over local government affairs pending elections is legal, and should have been in charge in the first place rather than the caretaker chairmen as pronounced by the judgment of the Supreme Court on the 11th July.
CHRCR called on the Kogi state government to quickly make resources available for SIEC to enable it conduct credible, free, fair and acceptable elections on the 19th October, 2024 as contained in the just released timetable.