The Plateau House of Assembly on Wednesday approved the extension of the tenure of the Management Committee Chairmen of the 17 local governments in the State by two months, contrary to the request of Governor Simon Lalong who wanted six months for them.

Lalong had made the request for the extension of the chairmen’s tenure by six months in a letter to the House.

Rejecting the governor’s six months tenure extension request, Mr Daniel Dem (Riyom Constituency) said that the constitution of the caretaker committees was illegal.

Dem, who is the Minority Leader of the Assembly, explained that the elected chairmen who were removed by the governor, still have a case in court challenging their removal from office.

”It was at the floor of this House that we adopted and approved a three-month tenure for the management committee chairmen and later extended it by two months.

”We also reached a resolution that subsequently we will only extend the tenure of the chairmen by two months only,” he said.

Also, the Deputy Speaker, Mr Yusuf Gagdi (Kantana Constituency), said that most of local government committees were performing below expectations and as such the tenure elongation was not a priority.

“The physical sites of most of the local governments remain an eyesore.

”As l support the extension of their tenure by just two months, l also want to call on this House to look into the performing status of most of these local governments.

‘They are preforming below expectations,” he said.

The Management Committee Chairmen were appointed in July and `their tenure was extended by two months in October.

The assembly had resolved that the tenure of the caretaker chairmen would be extended after every two months.