Posted by By Sufuyan Ojeifo on
BOARD of Trustees (BOT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against the decision by some Governors of the party to reduce the tenure of Local Government chairmen and councilors from three to two years.
ABUJA - BOARD of Trustees (BOT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against the decision by some Governors of the party to reduce the tenure of Local Government chairmen and councilors from three to two years.
At a meeting held Tuesday night in Abuja, which lasted into the early hours of yesterday, the Board unanimously resolved that the tenure of local government office holders should run for three years as constitutionally provided. Some states, including Edo, recently amended, through the state House of Assembly, the local government tenure, reducing it from three to two years.
The implication of the reduction, if allowed to stay, would be the conduct of ocal government elections next year consequent upon the exit of the incumbents whose tenure should have expired in 2007.
Sources at the Board of Trustees meeting attended by President Olusegun Obasanjo in the Kano Hall of Nicon Hilton Hotel, Abuja, told Vanguard yesterday that the meeting rejected the move by the state governors, which it (meeting) said was aimed at giving the governors the opportunity to install their surrogates in office till 2008 beyond their (Governors'') tenure in 2007.
The meeting resolved that the states that have reduced the tenure should return to status quo while those planning to reduce should halt the process so that all elected officers at all levels can all go in 2007.
The argument for uniformity of the exit date and the necessity to guard against further imposition by the state governors of local government chairmen and councilors was said to have swayed the unanimous support of the Trustees for a quick return by Governors who had reduced the tenure to the status quo (three-year tenure).
The meeting, which was presided over by the Chairman of the Board, Chief Tony Anenih, had in attendance Akwa Ibom Governor, Obong Victor Attah (who has been a member of the Board even before he became Governor), Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Masari, National Chairman of the party, Col. Ahmadu Ali, National Secretary, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Prince Benjamin Apugo, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Dr. Bode Olajumoke and Dr. Osaigbovwo Ogbemudia, among others. Vice President Abubakar Atiku did not attend the meeting as he is presently on leave in the United States.
It was gathered that the meeting set up a six-man committee headed by Chief Anenih to look into the case of the embattled Plateau State Governor, Chief Joshua Dariye.
The setting up of the Committee of the Board was sequel to the resolution of the last National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, which approved the recommendation by the Governor Donald Duke-Committee that Dariye should appear before the Board to tell his own side of the story.