BY VINCENT UJUMADU
AWKA—Secretary to Anambra State Government, SSG, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, has said the court case against the state government on the conduct of local government election remained the major drawback against LG polls in the state.
Obaze, who spoke during an interaction with reporters in Awka weekend, said the state government had nothing to lose if the election was conducted, assuring that the exercise would be carried out as soon as the court case was vacated.
The sacked chairman of Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission, ANSIEC, Professor Titus Eze, had dragged the state government to court, challenging his removal and an Awka High Court hearing the matter had warned the state government not to appoint another chairman for ANSIEC until Eze’s case was disposed of.
The resultant effect was that all preparations made by the electoral commission for the conduct of the election, which was earlier scheduled to take place in December 2010, were put on hold.
The SSG said: “The reason we have not conducted the election is because there is a case in court and there in an injunction stopping government from going ahead with the election until the court injunction was vacated.
“The governor, Mr. Peter Obi, as a law-abiding citizen of this country, cannot just order that the local government election be conducted when there is a case in court. That will amount to undermining the judiciary.
“If those who instituted the case in court withdraw it tomorrow, we will not waste time in conducting the election.
“The governor is even more desirous to conduct the local government election because he is a true democrat and would want democracy to be entrenched at the local government level.”
Governor Obi had set the machinery in motion for the election by constituting members of the commission, some of whom were clergy men, before the state House of Assembly removed the ANSIEC chairman over alleged offences.
Not satisfied with the decision of the lawmakers, the ANSIEC chairman went to court and the matter is still pending at an Awka High Court.
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Why Anambra has not conducted LG poll – SSG