Your proposed amendment to accommodate caretaker committee for local council negates your campaign promises, Dasin tells Fintiri
Chairman Adamawa united for change, Alhaji Musa Dasin, says the Adamawa state House of Assembly’s attempt to enact law to make caretaker committee for local government councils in Adamawa is illegal as it breaches several provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the recent supreme pronouncement on same matter.
Dasin, therefore, called on the State Assembly members to ignore the bill as proposed by Gov. Fintiri that promised local government financial autonomy during the last electioneering campaign in the state is dead on arrival.
The group chairman said in a statement on Monday that the Supreme Court had denied governors powers to illegally dissolve local government chairman hence Fintiri resulted to self-help by pushing for the illegal provision to pave way for care taker committee.
Dasin said if Fintiri couldn’t organise local government election instead he is looking for opportunity to install those that he can dedicate to, then he has rubbish the so called autonomy he promised the people, then it followed that it couldn’t give the autonomy he promised the local councils in the state.
The human rights crusader said, “As far as the constitution is concerned, there is currently no provision for care taker in Adamawa state, it provides only for elected local government chairmen not caretaker.
“It is the height of legislative absurdity for Adamawa state House of Assembly to key into Fintiri’s plan to denied local government council their representatives through bringing back care taker committee in the state. The supreme court held that ‘where the provision in the Act is within the legislative powers of the Assembly but the constitution is found to have already made the same or similar provision, then the new provision will be regarded as invalid for duplication and/or inconsistency and therefore inoperative.’
“The same fate will befall any provision of the Act which seeks to enlarge, curtail or alter any existing provision of the constitution. The provision or provisions will be treated as unconstitutional and therefore null and void.
“From the foregoing, it is submitted that the interference in the running of local government council by the Fintiri administration has spell doom for his government of making many unfulfilled promise to the people in order to get in touch with power
Dasin, however, said some aspects of the local government laws in Adamawa had the capacity to promote internal democracy and enhance the credibility of the electoral process in the local government council in Adamawa.
Meanwhile, strong indications have emerged that the battle over the amendment is not over yet.
A credible source in the Assembly, who spoke to one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, disclosed that majority of the House members are not happy with the amendment to accommodate caretaker committee, and that the bill may suffer setback as it shows the dream of local government in Adamawa state to enjoy autonomy is about to be taken away by appointment of caretaker chairmen as proposed by the governor.