Kwara PDP Condemns Abdulraman’s Attempt To Extend LGA Elections Till 2025, Says It’s Brutal
The Kwara State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the leadership of its chairman Rt. Hon. Babatunde Mohammed has expressed concerns over the continued encroachment and usurpation of local government administration by the Abdulrahman-led government in kwara state. 
The party made its concerns known during its press briefing which held at the PDP Secretariat in Tanke Junction, GRA Ilorin on Monday, October 30th, 2023.
According to Kwara PDP ,local government operations have been stalled in the state, with people at the grassroots denied the dividends of democracy because of the absence of legally recognized structures at the grassroots level. The party also highlighted the insecurity, violent crimes, gangsterism, kidnappings, and wanton killing of people in the rural parts of the state.
The party recounted that shortly after the APC came to power in May 2019, the sixteen elected council chairmen were illegally dissolved, based on politically motivated trump-up charges, in defiance of court orders. The Abdulrahman-led government also replaced the sacked chairmen with its surrogates who were tagged Transition Implementation Committee (TIC) chairmen to illegally superintend local government administrations and resources in the state.
The PDP stated that this action was an affront against the judiciary and the constitution, adding that it was condemned by well-meaning Kwarans, including some APC members. The action was challenged in court by a popular Kwara-based civil society organization, the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENETSUD), which got a court ruling in March 2021 that nullified the dissolution of democratically elected chairmen and ordered the immediate dissolution of the TIC members. The Abdulrahman government proceeded to appeal the judgment, but the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Kwara State High Court in April 2022.
Despite these court rulings, the Abdulrahman-led government has been defiant, allowing its unlawful agents to continue lording over local governments for more than three years, which is the constitutional tenure permissible for council chairmen. The government also constituted a board in the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) to deceive the people of its readiness to conduct local government elections.
Also the kwara state peoples democracy party (PDP) condemned the attempted alteration of some vital sections of the existing local government laws of the state and that the process that led to the bill’s passage ran fouls of the house standing rules and orders. The party warned that if the bill were passed into law, the local government elections would automatically be shifted to the year 2025, two years before the expiration of the second term of the Abdulrahman administration. The PDP joined other stakeholders in the state to demand the immediate suspension of the anti-democratic bill.
The PDP called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, to halt the disbursement of LG allocation to Kwara State until the government addresses issues around it. The party also called for immediate publication of all federal allocations and other cash inflow to all local government area councils in Kwara state. The PDP urged the government to conduct council elections as soon as possible to alleviate the suffering of the people at the grassroots.
Present at the press conference are : ‘channels tv, arise news, AIT, daily post, and the cradle news Nigeria’ amongst other media outlets .
