•Soludo and Peter Obi
The National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chief Ralphs Okey-Nwosu, has threatened to commence legal action against Anambra Governor Chukwuma Soludo and former governor, Peter Obi over the account of not less than N3 trillion from the federation account to local governments.
The action, he said, will also include other past governors for allegedly, mismanaging Internally-generated Revenue (IGR) in the last 20 years, reports The Nation.
Nwosu also rejected the date of the planned local government elections in the 21 Councils by Soludo for September 28, 2024.
ADC made this known to reporters in Awka at the weekend, while revealing that it was the usual practice not to conduct local government elections to pave way for a governor to install lackeys as local government administrators.
The ADC helmsman alleged the governors misused more than N1trillion within the period.
According to him: “The recklessness must stop; that a governor with economic background doesn’t want democracy to thrive at the local government area level. They must not do the 28th September 2024 Local Government level.
“It’s really condemnable that somebody as 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, look at the audacity of state governors to oppose the direct remittance allocations from the centre to the councils.”
Nwosu attributed the amendment and haste to conduct the council polls to purported pecuniary interest in the federal allocations to the councils
“The governors have been intolerant. They don’t want the local government system of administration to succeed.”
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 direct transfer of allocations from federation account directly to the council coffers.
“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.”
The party leader 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
“We’re supporting the National Assembly NASS 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 so as to claim that the State has concluded its elections before they law came into force
“APGA is scared of losing the governorship election coverage 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 launch pad to secure a second term in the next governorship election,” Nwosu said.
