Senate Moves to Establish Electoral Commission for LGAs

The Senate has passed the first reading of a proposed Bill that aims to create a federal agency responsible for overseeing local government elections.

The Bill, known as the “Local Government Independent Electoral Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024,” was introduced by Senator Sani Musa, who serves as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance.

Earlier, the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, declared that the Federal Government is not superior to states in exercising each other’s constitutional roles.

He maintained that the judgment had created a constitutional lacuna that would throw up different challenges at the local government level.

However, a spokesman for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Felix Morka, has stated that the Supreme Court’s verdict on LG autonomy was not enough, stressing that some electoral reforms have to be put in place for the verdict to be effective.

He argued that the third tier of government, cannot be said to have formidable administrations when governors still “handpick” chairmen for local governments in their states