Amid bickering Bauchi Gov swears in 20 newly elected LG Chairmen

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State on Sunday swore in the newly elected Chairmen of the State’s 20 Local Governments.

Mohammed, in a speech at the ceremony, congratulated them for emerging victorious in the election held on Saturday.

“My administration believes that the people should have a say in local government administration through the election of the leaders.

“This has become even more necessary with the autonomy the Supreme Court recently granted the councils to run their affairs.

“It is for this reason that our party, the PDP, nominated and presented knowledgeable, experienced and competent candidates to vie for the chairmanships and councillorship seats,

“With the victory of our candidates, I’m confident that we will have the desired leadership to effectively administer our local governments as autonomous third tier of government,” he said

Mohammed called on the elected chairmen to cooperate with the state government so that all could work together to serve the people.

Mr Mahmood Baba-Maji, the Chairman of Bauchi Local Government, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, promised to justify the trust the electorate bestowed on them.

“We will serve diligently; we assure you that policies and programmes of the state government will be replicated in our various local governments,” he said.

Chief Judge of the State, Justice Rabi Umar, administered the oath of allegiance and office to the 20 officials.

APC kicks over outcome of Bauchi LG election

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the outcome of the local government election conducted in Bauchi State on Saturday.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won all the 20 chairmanship seats in the local government election.

Alhaji Muhammad Hassan, APC Chairman in Bauchi at a news briefing on Saturday, described the election as a “broad-day robbery of franchise and murder of democracy”.

Hassan cited numerous alleged irregularities, including inadequate election materials, withheld sensitive materials and result sheets and votes allocation to the ruling PDP. Others were the alleged absence of returning officers and the abandonment of election materials at the polling units.

“There were also instances of ballot box snatching, massive thumb printing of ballot papers for PDP and votes allocation to PDP candidates across all the local governments,” the APC Chairman alleged.

The Bauchi State Independent Electoral Commission (BASIEC), however, insisted that the polls were free and fair.

Mr Ahmed Makama, BASIEC Chairman, who announced the results, said the election was conducted peacefully across the State.

“For the chairmanship election, PDP won all the 20 seats as declared at the local government levels. And for the Councillors, the results were declared in the wards with other parties emerging victorious,” Makama said

The BASIEC Chairman further said that the commission would issue the winners with their certificates of return on Sunday.

The local government election was conducted following the recent judgement of the Supreme Court, which affirmed local government’s autonomy.

The judgement is seeking the Federation Account Allocation Committee to withhold funds meant for LGs without democratically elected officials.

Bauchi constitutes LG election petition tribunals

Earlier, the Bauchi State High Court had constituted three petition tribunals and an appeal panel, to treat cases envisaged to arise from the August 17 local government election.

Hajiya Fatima Abubakar, Chief Registrar of Bauchi State High Court stated at a news conference that the State Chief Judge, Justice Rabi Umar had sworn in the chairmen and members of the petition tribunals as well as the appeal panel on August 12.

Abubakar disclosed that the action was in tandem with the provisions of the Bauchi State Electoral Law, 2008, which empowered the Chief Judge to carry out the task.

“Provision of the Section 60 Sub Section 2 of the Law, said an aggrieved party has 21 days within which to file his/her petition from the date of the declaration of the result.

“For the appeal, dissatisfied parties has 14 days from the decision of the tribunal within which to file an appeal,” she said.

According to Abubakar, the tribunal will commence sitting on August 19, adding that the court would have three centres at Bauchi, Ningi and Azare “with the time frame of two months for the tribunal and one month for the appeal”.

She said the tribunals would be headed by Magistrate Garba Kundak for Bauchi North Senatorial Zone; Magistrate Isma’il Adam, Bauchi Central Senatorial Zone and Magistrate Safiya Salihu, Bauchi South Senatorial, while the appeal panel would be headed by Justice Mohammed Sambo.

TNG reports members of the tribunal and the appeal panel have been charged to work with the fear of God and ensure quick disposition of matters before them.