The National Assembly is set to grant autonomy to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to also take up the conduction of local government council elections in Nigeria.
The tune for this was set in a session of the senate where the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki asked for a voice vote to raitfy that the responsibility of conducting local government elections be taken away from the state to Independent National Electoral Commission.
This was as a result of the findings of the constitutional amendment report submitted to the Senate on Tuesday and it was reasoned that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should henceforth conducting local government elections of states.
Senator Dino Melaye representing Kogi West Senatorial district said the autonomy of local governments was sacrosanct and as such the elections of their chairmen should be done not by the state governments but directly by INEC.
According to Senator Melaye “It was obvious that at the state level, governors sit down in the comfort of their offices to appoint local government Chairmen and so there was no fairness.”
