By Our correspondent
A lawyer to three concerned citizens of Anambra Anambra State has petitioned the state governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, asking him to constitute the Anambra State Independent Electoral Act ( ANSIEC) so as to conduct local government elections in the state without further delays.
The citizens expressed their utter dissatisfaction with the silence of the state government over the conduct of local government elections for a whole two years.
In a letter written by Enwezor and Co, one of the leading law firms in Anambra State, on behalf of the concerned citizens and addressed to the governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the group expressed their utmost desire to help redirect the governor to discharge his constitutional duty of constituting the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission – ANSIEC, so that the body can undertake its constitutional mandate of conducting local government election in the state.
Before the 2021 governorship election, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, then the candidate of the All-Progressive Grand Alliance – APGA, promised to conduct local government elections in his first six months in office as governor.
According to the petitioner, “It is now two years and there is nothing that points to the government’s readiness to conduct the local government election. In consequence, for a whole decade, there has not been a local government election in Anambra State.
“Our clients are worried that the last time local government election was conducted in Anambra State was sometime in 2014 during the twilight days of His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi’s administration, and the worst situation is that the electoral body that should mid-wife the existence of a democratically elected Local Government system in the state has been clobbered into oblivion by succeeding administrations including yours…as governor, after taking an oath to defend and maintain the constitution of Nigeria to which you owe your present perch as governor of our dear state,” reads a part of the letter from the law firm of Barr. Chugo Enwezor, on behalf of Hon. Arinze Awogu, Chidi Okoye and Dr. Charles Ebulue entitled, “letter requesting for the appointment of the chairman and members of the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (A.N.S.I.E.C.) under sections 197 (1)(b) and 198 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)”.
The letter also demanded that the governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, should constitute ANSIEC within the next 90 days, as failure to do so would result in using legal instruments to compel the governor to perform his constitutional duty. “Take notice, Sir, that if at the end of the months period, you failed for any reason to perform the public duty as demanded of you, then we shall further our client’s instructions which is to approach the High Court of Anambra State to seek for Order of Mandamus and other ancillary reliefs compelling you to perform the public duty imposed on you by section 198 of the 1999 constitution aforementioned,” the letter concluded.
The letter was delivered to the governor’s office on the last day of January 2024, around 2 pm and received by a staff of the governor’s office, in the Government House of Anambra State, Awka.
