TheCable

Chidi Lloyd, the majority leader of the Rivers state house of assembly, says council chairmen would abuse political powers if local government autonomy was granted.

Lloyd made the assertion in Port Harcourt after the assembly took its position on the ongoing constitution amendment.

He noted that the Rivers assembly was against local government autonomy because if granted, some of the chairmen would use political powers arbitrarily.

The leader alleged that the legislative arms of some of the local governments could not pass bills to better the lives of their people.

He said that in the present circumstance, the councils seemed autonomous because they already had legislative arms that made bylaw for the people.

“They should not talk about local government autonomy because already they are autonomous,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in the state has urged the state assembly to support local government autonomy.

Magidi Dickson, NULGE’s deputy chairman, who led its members to the assembly, called on the legislators to support the autonomy as recommended in the constitutional amendment.

Responding to Dickson’s call, Leyii Kewanee, the deputy speaker of the assembly, promised to convey their message to Otelemaba Amachree, speaker of the assembly.