Plateau cuts LGs’ tenure to 2 years

Isaac Shobayo, Jos- 12.03.2008

AS Plateau State prepares for local government elections slated for Saturday, the state House of Assembly has reduced the tenure of local government chairmen and councillors in the 17 local councils in the state from three years to two.

Opposition political parties in the state have, however, condemned the decision of the House which was based on the bill presented by the executive.

The House took the decision on Monday after treating a bill moved by the Majority Leader, Joseph Bukar, on amended 2007 Local Government Laws which was unanimously agreed upon by the entire members of the House in order to bring governance at the grassroots closer to the people.

After the deliberation on the tenure of local government chairmen, the House also extended the tenure of the transition committee chairmen by another one month making it the second time their tenure had been extended in two months.

The House pointed out that the decision was taken in order not to create a vacuum since the last one month granted them had elapsed and the council poll was yet to be conducted.

House Committee Chairman on Information, Emmanuel Daboyi, said the two-year tenure would ensure efficiency in governance at the local government level, saying what was expected of the in-coming local government chairmen and councillors was for them to ensure good governance.