Alhaji Ardo, who said this at a press conference, noted that elections which ought to have been conducted in the two councils long ago were however “buffeted by forces from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state”.
“We the opposition parties have never been consulted either verbally or in writing before such appointments were made, an unfortunate situation indeed,” he said.
He said the electorate should be allowed to vote for candidates of their choice instead of imposing people on them in the name of caretaker chairmen or sole administrators.
“What does it take for government to organise and conduct elections since the expiration of the previous councils? Let there be a level playing ground so that all political parties would participate fully and the electorate exercise their civic rights to vote candidates of their choice”, he added.
Ardo observed that 75 percent of the leadership in Karim Lamido local government between 1999 till date was largely through caretaker chairmen or sole administrators thereby depriving electorates of exercising their mandates.
According to him, assessments showed that Karim has so far had four sole administrators, three caretaker chairmen with only four elected chairmen to run the council between 1999 till date.
Ardo also called for the dissolution of the membership of the Taraba State Independent Electoral Commission (TSIEC) to give chance for appointments of neutral personalities who will restore confidence of the electorate in the electoral systems.
“The neutrality of the present membership cannot be guaranteed as all of them are card carrying members of the PDP. Some of them even contested elections and won under the platform of PDP in recent past,” he said.
