Kano Assembly may disqualify Ganduje’s LG caretaker nominees

Group threatens to recall Ekweremadu, Lasun over ‘Not too Young’ bill

The Kano State House of Assembly may disqualify some of the people selected by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to be appointed as Interim Management Officers (IMO) for the 44 local government areas in the state.

Daily Trust reports that the names, contained in a letter dated July 13, were read by the speaker, Alhaji Yusuf Abdullahi Ata, during yesterday’s plenary.

The letter said the IMOs would replace chairmen of the 44 local government areas, whose tenure expired on May 29.

But a competent source in the house confided in Daily Trust, that some of those to be disqualified by the legislators were four women and two men, who were contracted by the state government on grade level 14.

Also to be disqualified were nominees from Wudil, Gaya, Garko, Gabasawa, Dawakin Kudu, Gwale, Tsanyawa and Fagge.

While reading the letter, Speaker Ata said the house deliberately concealed the names of the nominees for some obvious reasons.

According to him, “Some of the nominees will not scale through the screening exercise.”

The list was later handed over to the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to commence the screening today. A coalition, Not Too Young to Run, has protested the exclusion of a bill that seeks to amend the 1999 Constitution to allow young Nigerians to vie for political offices come 2019.

Both the Senate and House of Representatives had passed the bill and referred it to the ad hoc committee on constitution review chaired by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and Deputy Speaker, Yussuf Suleiman Lasun. But the bill was left out of the over 20 bills considered at a retreat in Lagos, at the weekend.

The coalition said in a statement by its coordinator, Ibrahim Faruk, in Abuja, yesterday, that if the joint committee did not reverse itself and take the bill, it would initiate a recall process against all its members.

Each state of the federation has a member in the committee.

The coalition, which comprised of 81 organizations, said, “The campaign is committed to mobilizing constituents to commence recall proceedings against members of the constitution review who voted against the pro-people amendment if our demands are not met. We will not hesitate to withdraw the youth vote for all the legislators who voted against the bill.

“We call on the leadership of the National Assembly to fulfill its promise to the Nigerian youth and the international community by ensuring the inclusion of ‘Not Too Young To Run’ in the report of the constitution review committee and its passage at plenary.

“We call on the Nigerian youth to once again take leadership in holding our lawmakers accountable to us. Give your representatives a call, write to them, pay them a visit and demand the passage of the ‘Not Too Young To Run’.

“The campaign is also committed to using every means possible within the ambit of the law, to make our voices heard until the National Assembly accedes to our request,” the coalition said.