Benue gov, deputy at loggerheads over dissolution of LG caretaker committees
From ROSE EJEMBI, Makurdi
Friday, May 11, 2012
There are indications that crisis of confidence may be brewing between Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam and his Deputy, Chief Steven Lawani, following the dissolution of local government caretaker committees in the state, late Wednesday night.
A reliable source disclosed that problem started between the governor and his older deputy when the later did not carry out the instruction given to him by his boss on the dissolution of the Local Government Areas (LGAs) caretaker committees to the letter.
Suswam, Daily Sun gathered, had approved the dissolution of 19 out of the 23 local government areas’ caretaker committees before leaving the country with President Jonathan Goodluck on Wednesday.
The need to dissolve the committees was said to be consequent upon the Local Government Law, which was passed by the state House of Assembly that all caretaker committee chairmen and their members who had stayed beyond six months in the saddle be sacked so that election could be conducted in the council areas.
However, our source disclosed that out of the 23 local government areas of the state, the caretaker committees in 19 local government areas had stayed in the office for close to one year, while only four had stayed less than a year in office.
