Niger Assembly dissolves LG councils, directs Gov Bello to conduct elections

Niger State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed a motion dissolving the 25 Local Government Councils in the state for alleged poor performance and misappropriation of funds.

The assembly also directed Governor Abubakar Bello to immediately implement the resolution and conduct fresh council elections within 90 days.

This was contained in a report by the House Committee on Local Government read at plenary by Abdulmalik Kabir (APC-Paikoro), who is the chairman of the committee.

The motion seconded by John Bahago (APC-Munya), directed the chairmen of the 25 councils to handover to Directors of Personnel Management (DPM).

The lawmakers upheld that the legislative councils have also failed to hold meetings and sittings as required under Section 38; subsection (1) of Niger local government law, 2001.

The Assembly also discovered that none of the council’s legislative arms had up to 50 sittings, which was short of the required 90 by law, adding that the highest sittings by the councils was 47 in two years.

The Assembly decried absence of the chairmen from office and indiscriminate award of contracts.