Anambra State Chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) and Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO), have decried the extension of the tenure of Local Government Transition Committee Chairmen in the state .
The groups in a separate chats with Daily Trust described the extension of local government transition committee chairmen as an act of illegality, that must not be encouraged.
Recall that Anambra state House of Assembly had on Thursday last week renewed the tenure of 18 out of 21 Local Government Transition Committee Chairmen and members for three months following Governor Willie Obiano’s request.
According to the state Chairman of APC, Mr Basil Ejidike, the Anambra state government should rather conduct elections into the local government offices to entrench democratic process at the grassroots.
“What the state House of Assembly has done is something that will not help our democracy. It is coming to a point where the people must rise up to condemn the impunity in the state.
“There have been court pronouncements on the need to conduct local government elections and have democratically elected officers at the local government levels.
“I call on the Federal Government to intervene by withholding the funds meant for the local government in Anambra until elections are conducted’’, he said.
The Chairman of CLO in the state, Mr Vincent Ezekwueme said that the tenure renewal was contrary to the position of the country’s laws, urging the state government to respect the constitution of the nation.
According to him, the non-conduct of local government elections had remained a major threat to ensuring grassroots development and political participation.
He added that the trend was gradually sidelining people from participating in grassroots politics.
“Governors have no power to constitute local government caretaker committees.
“The National Assembly and the Federal Government should ensure strict compliance to the land mark Supreme Court judgment that mandated all state governments to conduct elections into local government offices’’, he said.
Daily Trust reliably gathered that the last local council elections conducted in the state was in January 2014 by Mr.Peter Obi.
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