ADC threatens Soludo, ex-govs over N3 trillion LG funds, IGR in 20 years, rejects Sept 28 polls.

By Our Correspondent

The National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu has threatened to commence action to get the present and past governors of Anambra State to account for not less than N3 trn allegedly due to the Local Government Councils of the State from the Federation Account and Internally-generated Revenue (IGR) in the last 20 years of democratic practice in the State. Nwosu also rejected the process leading to the conduct of the local government elections in the 21 Councils of the State, stressing that the hurried nature for the exercise is sysoect. Disclosing this in a chat with newsmen, weekend, Nwosu revealed that it is the usual practice not to conduct local government elections to pave way for a governor to put his lackeys as local administrators who will sign documents for him and when money comes to local government, the governor grabs it asking the Chairman to send it where he wants. The ADC boss said more than a trillion Naira were allegedly misused by the governors within the reviewed period He said: “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 really 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 wondered the audacity of state governors to oppose the direct remittance allocations from the centre to the council s.” The National Chairman attributed the amendment and haste to conduct the council polls to 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 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. He said IPAC will challenged 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, questioning, “who’s Soludo to talk about and work for that? Nwosu: “We’re supporting he 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 Governnent is rushing to conduct council elections so as to claim that the State has concluded its elections before they law came into force.”. 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 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 show disposition to hijack allocations due to the council over the last 20 years of democratic goverrnnent, alleging that Soludo’s hurriedness to conduct the exercises was to beat the move by the National Assembly to stop states electoral bodies from the conduct of council polls. Nwosu said the amendment is a “deliberate efforts by the APGA-Ied administration to stifle democracy and strangulate the local government because he wants to be in charge of the allocations.” He said that as long as he remains the National Chairman of ADC and hails from Anambra State, Soludo in collaboration with the rubber-stamp state legislature won’t succeed to introduce something unknown to law in the council statement and dictate what happens, moreso when all political parties are registered and have their headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja According to him, 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 urged governor Soludo as a renown economist to appreciate the import of existence of truly democratically-elected Chairmen and Councillors in turning things around and their impact on improved livelihoods, rurall deveopment and economic advancement at the grassroots level. 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. “But where a governor is in charge and the traditional institution, church, town union and market association leadership organs are under his dictation, the governor’s party will clear all the votes Chieftaincy, Soludo not to localize issues, but to focus more on the state matters than local administration and funding in order to allow the units of mayoralty across 774 Areas of the federation including Anambra State to strive and thrive tremendiously in local government in terms of service delivery, provision of welfare, job generation, wealth creation and wellness in a healthy, competitive manner of excellence.