Forget LG Transition Committees In A’Ibom, Stakeholders Tell Udom

As the tenure of local government councils gets to an end, stakeholders and concerned citizens of Akwa Ibom State have advised the state governor to forget the idea of forming transition committees in the thirty one council areas of the state.
Speaking with our correspondent in Uyo, chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council, Pastor Ekomobong Akpan noted that the transition committee arrangement should only be used when there is urgent and obvious need for it. He criticized the arrangement, describing it as a rape of the franchise and the core mandate and objective of the local government system.
According to him the transition committees do not execute projects and they do not represent the interests of the masses but that of their godfathers. “Once their tenure expires, they should be a conduct of fresh elections across the state, else Akwa Ibomites and particularly other political parties will be denied their rights of political participation.
“It will be a mockery on our democratic experiment. So the inter Party Advisory Council in Akwa Ibom calls for a fresh local government election when their tenure expires in December”
Speaking in the same vein, state chairman of New Nigeria Peoples Party, Prince Ubong Eberefiak said if there would be need for it, all the political parties that exist in the state should be included in the committee, else it would be one-sided and at will negate the governor’s claim to run an all-inclusive government”
Also speaking, state chairman of the National Association of Political Support Groups, Charles Effiong said the transition committee was unknown to the law. “The governor is conscious of this provision of the constitution as regards local Government administration. It is a conduit pipe to drain our state treasury. We do not and will not support the constitution of transition committees”
But the Ikot Abasi chapter secretary of the PDP, Stanley Inyang disagrred with them. In his words, “whatever the governor ask us to do, we will do it, provided it is legal. As a party, we don’t have a say, whatever the leadership of the party designs, we have no option than to key in”.