The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, has advocated the scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs).
He said their functions should be transferred to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure independence and transparency in the outcome of local government elections.
Fagbemi had recently, in a suit, asked the Supreme Court to void the alleged misconduct of 36 states in withholding local government funds.
He had also asked the Supreme Court to stop the 36 state governments from disbandment of elected local government councils and replacing them with caretaker committees.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja at the National Discourse on Nigeria’s Security Challenges and Good Governance at the Local Government Levels organised by the House of Representatives, themed, ‘Nigeria’s Security Challenges and Good Governance at the Local Government Levels,” Fagbemi said scrapping state electoral commissions would allow democracy to take its roots in the local governments through a robust constitutional amendment.
He said doing so would remove all encumbrances hindering the development of local governments and their ability to fulfill their constitutionally recognized functions.
He said, “To achieve this, many experts have proposed that there is a need for the scrapping of the state independent electoral commission.
“Their functions and powers should be transferred to the Independent National Electoral Commission because the state independent electoral commission remains an appendage to every incumbent governor. This is perceived as the root cause of the problem of local government administration in Nigeria”.
He said despite the constitutional provisions to safeguard local governments’ autonomy, there had always been arbitrary dissolution, abolition or fragmentation of local governments by the state governments.
