Kwara PDP kicks against hasty passage of local govt bill

<p>The Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has condemned moves by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to alter some sections of the existing local government laws of the state.</p>, <p>The party alleged that “apart from the suspicion owing to the hasty receipt and passage of the said bill by the Kwara state House of Assembly, which ought to observe due diligence in its operation, the process that led to the bill scaling through first and second readings respectively, ran foul of the House’s standing rules and orders”.</p>, <p>At a press conference in Ilorin on Monday, the state Chairman of the PDP, Babatunde Muhammed, condemned in strong terms ” the attempt to alter Section 20(1) of the local government law to increase notification of the election date by the Kwara state Independent Electoral Commission, KWASIEC, from existing 90 days to 360 days”.</p>, <p>“If this bill is passed into law the local government elections will automatically be shifted to the year 2025, two years to the expiration of the second terms of this administration,” he noted.</p>, <p>The party demanded the immediate suspension of what it described as anti-democratic bill aimed at further crippling grassroots governance and subjecting their monthly allocations to the sinister control and consumption of the governor through illegal Transition Implementation Committee chairmen.</p>, <p>It asked the Speaker of the House of Assembly to halt further action on the bill and ensure all lawmakers have copies of the bill to contribute their knowledge and make informed inputs that represents the will of their constituencies and constituents.</p>, <p>Babatunde, also demanded among others, immediate publication of all federal allocations and other cash inflow to all local government area councils of the state.</p>, <p>The party called on President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to halt further disbursement of local government allocation to Kwara State pending when the government will address several issues.</p>,