ADC blames insecurity in South East on govs refusal to conduct LG polls

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has blamed the insecurity in the South East on non-conduct of local council elections by governors in the zone.

The party stated this during its South East leadership retreat held in Awka, Anambra State.

The ADC asked the five South East governors to quickly conduct local government elections in their states or risk being dragged to court.

The National Vice Chairman, South East, of the party, Chilos Godsent, who addressed journalists after the retreat, said if the governors failed to heed the demand, the party would institute court cases against them, beginning with the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma.

He said: “We are urging all the governors in the South East to immediately conduct local government election.

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“The insecurities in the zone can be traced to non-conduct of local government election. Majority of the youths that you find today who are engaged in one crime or the other are the same people that would have been chairmen of local government, councillors and supervisory councilors.

“The youths who are perpetuating insecurity today are the same people who would have been benefiting from local contracts, some would have been Special Advisers and Senior Special Advisers.

“The benefits of holding local government elections in the South East is much and we are calling on the governors of the zone to rise up and hold elections. Holding the election can mitigate the tendency of escalating conflict in the South East.”

Godsent regretted that governors have converted the local government councils into their personal properties by appointing their lackeys as sole administrators and transition committee chairmen.

“They use them as conduit to loot the coffers of the local government, and this is unacceptable. Even the House of Assembly in many states have been pocketed by governors and that too is unacceptable.

“We are making this call to them, and our next step is to take a legal action against all the state governors to compel them to hold elections in their state.

“We want to get the court to pronounce that the issue of sole administrator, transition committee chairman or any other name they call it is illegal and cannot be accepted.

“We are starting with the governor of Imo State and we will bring it down to all the other state governors in the South East.”

Earlier, the chairman of the party in Anambra State, Patrick Obianyor said the essence of the retreat was to “gather all key leaders of the party in the South East and evaluate its performance, itemize its challenges and propose a way forward”.