Seven political parties have prayed the Kogi State High Court in Lokoja to restrain the government from constituting local government caretaker committees until their suit is determined.
The parties are Labour Party (LP), National Congress Party (NCP), Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP), Allied Campaign Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Africa Peoples Alliance (APA), Kowa Party (KP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
They urged the court to stop the government from constituting caretaker committees.
The state government and attorney-general are respondents to the suit.
In a supporting affidavit deposed to by Ibrahim Usman of the LP, the plaintiffs said Governor Idris Wada, last month, proposed the caretaker committees before the elections.
The plaintiffs, through their lawyer, Mr William Abdullai Aliwo, said they were not consulted.
But on April 8, the government summoned a meeting of some parties at LP’s office, a day after the governor allegedly met with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders.
The claimants said the government’s representative informed them that Wada had reconstituted the councils.
But the government claimed there was no money to organise an election, adding that it would not be in the interest of politicians to allow civil servants to manage the councils.
The state proposed all-inclusive committees with representatives from the major parties, which were asked to nominate members.
But the parties rejected the idea, saying it violated the 1999 Constitution and existing court judgments.
“The state government’s agent responded by saying the committee may not necessarily be called ‘caretaker committee’ but that a name or phrase not in conflict with the law would be adopted,” the plaintiffs said.
But the parties insisted that no matter the name, any unelected committee managing the councils would not be in their interest.
“We want to test our popularity through elections, which the state government is running away from,” the parties said.
They added that there were subsisting judgments of the High Court, which declared caretaker committees illegal.
The parties said the court had ordered the Directors of Local Governments (DLGs), comprising experienced civil servants, to take over the councils’ management.
They said they were still in charge when the suit was filed on April 13.
The plaintiffs alleged that a meeting was held at the Government House on April 7 where the governor allegedly agreed with stakeholders to compile and announce the committees before April 10.
“They resolved to damn legal consequences of their actions… If they do this, it will affect our right to produce candidates to contest the local government elections as we are prepared to contest now.
“No amount of monetary compensation can redress this political degradation that we suffer, if councils are reconstituted without election. We are ready to pay damages, if this action is found to be frivolous,” the plaintiffs said.
They argued that Section 7 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides for democratically elected councils, not by appointment.