Anambra LG Election: Soludo Not Ready For For Free, Fair Election- Rights Groups
•Just Wants to Fulfill All Righteousness To Access Seized FG Local Government Allocations
The Human Rights and pro-democracy groups in Anambra State have weighed into the latest Local Government controversy in Anambra State, concluding that Governor Chukwuma Soludo is not ready for free and fair conduct of Local Government poll in the State.
The Groups, Human Rights Liberty Access and Peace Defenders’Foundation (HURIDE) and Campaign for Democracy (CD) in South East which made stated this in a statement made available to newsmen in Awka, the Anambra State capital accused the Governor of just trying to conduct the election to fulfill all righteousness so that he can access the State Local Government fund.
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The Supreme Court of Nigeria, in its recent judgment, declared that any State that failed to conduct a Local Government election would have the Federation allocation seized.
Caught in this trap, Soludo hurriedly sent the names of the State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) to the State House of Assembly which also hurriedly passed it.
The ANSIEC, desperate to do the bidding of their boss, the Governor, fixed September 28, 2024,, as the day for the conduct of election in 21 Local Governments in the State.
But political parties were united in the rejection of the hurried date with some of them headed to Court to challenge it.
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HURIDE and CD, in a joint statement, faulted the one-month notice, stressing that the Electoral Act 2022, which is the most current Electoral Law in the Country, provided for three months.
Stating that ANSIEC cannot but follow the 2022 Electoral Law guidelines, the rights groups said that this alone has created fears that the State Electoral Management body cannot conduct a free, fair, and credible elections.
In the statement signed by Dede Uzor A Uzor, chairman of CD in the South East and Executive Director of HURIDE, the group said to buttress the hurried nature of the preparation, even the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA) did not conduct the primaries to pick its candidates for the election.
They said the party chose to elongate the tenure of the Transition Committee chairmen, which is expected to cause backlash on the party.
That alone, said the groups, was enough sign that the election would be “cut and join”.
Said the groups: “They are not ready to conduct a free and fair election. They just want to swap from Transition to supposedly elected Local Government because the Federal Government seized their allocation.
Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo should be democratic enough to conduct free and fair Local Government elections. He is a product of credible election”.
They expressed their support for political parties that have threatened to go to Court because buying into their plot amounts to giving them credibility. Dede Uzor Cautioned