Senate introduces Bill to establish Local Government electoral commission

The Nigerian Senate on Thursday introduced a Bill seeking to establish a Local Government Independent Electoral Commission. The Bill, sponsored by Sani Musa, the Lawmaker representing Niger East was read for the first time during plenary.

The introduction of this Bill follows a ruling by the Supreme Court which granted full autonomy to Local Government councils.

Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the federal Government to forthwith pay allocations due to Local Government from the federation account directly to the LG councils, a landmark judgement that grants LGs financial autonomy.

The Apex Court also ruled that governors do not have any constitutional power to dissolve democratically elected local government councils, and declared caretaker committees set up by state governments as unconstitutional.

The Seven-man panel of Justices delivered this judgement on Thursday in the suit filed by the Federal Government against the 36 state governors seeking full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.