ADC Moves Against Soludo’s September 28 Council Polls                   

The National Chairman of the African Democratic  Congress (ADC,), Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu has kicked against the September 28th 2024 Local Government Council Elections fixed by the Magistrate Genevieve Osakwe-led Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission, vowing it will not hold.

Nwosu said, under the Inter-party Action Committee (IPAC) at the national and State levels, “We’re going to consolidate our support for the move and appeal to the President to sign the bill into law necessitating the direct transfer of allocations from the federation account directly to the council coffers.

He said IPAC will challenge the newly inserted clauses in the just-amended local government elections law and ensure the reversal of the Anambra State Electoral (Amendment No.2), 2024.

He faulted one of the newly-inserted clauses in the Constitution which barred national chairmen of political parties from dealing with issues affecting their parties in the council elections, questioning, “Who’s Soludo to talk about and work for that?

Nwosu: “We’re supporting the National Assembly and other actors with political will in this move to save and revive the local government system to its responsibilities, and that is why Anambra State Government is rushing to conduct council elections to claim that the State has concluded its elections before the law came into force.”.

The ADC boss wondered about the audacity of state governors to oppose the direct remittance allocations from the centre to the councils.”

He attributed the amendment and haste to conduct the council polls to a purported pecuniary interest in the federal allocations to the councils, adding: “The governors have been intolerant. They don’t want the local government system of administration to succeed autonomously.

“Soludo and other governors in the past must account for more than a Trillion Naira that has come to the State from the federation including the Internally-generated revenue (IGR) which if included will be about Three Trillion Naira.

“The recklessness must stop; that a Governor with economic background doesn’t want democracy to thrive at the local government be area level. They must not do the 28th September 2024 Local Government level.

“It’s condemnable that somebody learned as Governor Soludo is running away from democracy. The best is to call for a collaborative meeting of stakeholders to iron issues out. If Soludo goes the way he’s doing, the local government system will derail,” Nwosu added.

He observed that the date for the scheduled council polls was hurriedly done; stressing that Anambra State Local Government Law 2024 is an exercise manifest in an act of desperation for Governor Chukwuma Soludo to retain power.

He frowned upon the non-challant attitude of the successive and present Governors of Anambra State who he allegedly showed a disposition to hijack allocations due to the council over the last 20 years of democratic government

He alleged that Soludo’s hurriedness to conduct the exercises was to beat the move by the National Assembly to stop state electoral bodies from the conduct of council polls.

According to him, APGA is scared of losing the Governorship election in 2025, hence “the party has resorted to arm-twisting tactics to use the conduct of the council polls to capture all the 21 local government areas and use them as a launch pad to secure a second term in the next governorship election.

The Chieftain of ADC pointed out that,  with a state structure as being planned by the National Assembly and Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and other judicial officials, council elections will have a level playing ground, be keenly contested and fairly won.