Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo has re-assured the people of the state that his administration will conduct local government election as he promised during his electioneering campaign, ANAMBRA PEOPLE reports.
Governor Soludo gave the assurance on Monday while fielding questions in a phone-in program of Anambra Broadcasting Service, which was simultaneously aired on other stations across the state.
The Governor’s Chat with Ndị Anambra, is a quarterly interactive session where the governor brief the state of the progress and challenges of his administration.
While responding to a question from a caller in the program concerning his promise to conduct local government election ,Governor Soludo stated he would still fulfill the promise and explained that certain things need to be put in place first before the conduct of the election to guarantee the full autonomy of the third tier government.
He said some structures also need to be put in place before the conduct of the election, both with respect to administration, execution of government’s policies and programs, as well as the payment of the local government’s staff (both active and retired) among other things that need to be planned, defined or worked out before conducting the local government election.
The Governor, however, refuted the caller’s claim that he promised to conduct the local government election before his eight months in office, adding that he did not give such time frame when he was making the promise.
“So, I don’t know where you got that date from… But one thing I can assure you is that the local government election will be conducted, as soon as these things I told you are concluded,” he said.
Recall that local government election was last conducted in Anambra State on January 11, 2014. This means that since about 24 years of the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, local government election has only been conducted once in Anambra State.
Even prior to that of 2014, several attempts to conduct the election proved abortive, as attempts were made to conduct it in December 4, 2004, February 2005, November 2011, October 5, 2013, December 14, 2013 and December 21, 2013, which all met brick walls before it was finally conducted on January 11, 2014 during former Governor Peter Obi’s administration.
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