By Ikeugonna Eleke
Anambra State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has at last bowed to pressure and expressed readiness to conduct local government elections in the state.
A bill for a law to establish the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission and for connected purposes, 2024, which was sent to the state assembly by the governor, passed through second reading, Tuesday.
The executive bill which was presented before the House by the Majority Leader, Mr Ikenna Ofodeme, will enable and empower the executive arm of government to conduct local government elections in the area when passed into law.
The Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) has not been in place since 12 years. But Just last week, a high court sitting in Abuja made an order, stopping the Federal Government from remitting local government funds to Anambra until elections were conducted.
There have been public outcry over the non-conduct of Local Government Elections by the governor.
According to Mr Ofodeme who presented the bill, the bill which has about 110 clauses would no doubt assist the state to address the interest of both the government and those that are not in government.
He said the governor had shown that he was willing to conduct free and fair local government elections in the state by sending in the electoral bill to the state House of Assembly.
Mr Patrick Okafor who represents Onitsha North II Constituency; Noble Igwe, Ogbaru Constituency I, Lady Nkechi Ogbuefi representing Anaocha constituency 1, and Mr Emmanuel Nwafor representing Orumba South Constituency noted that with the clauses in the bill, the governor had shown that he was poised to provide dividends of democracy to the grassroots through a democratically elected government which, he said, the people had been yearning for.
The Speaker of the House, Mr Somtochukwu Udeze, who presided over the plenary, said the lawmakers would not hesitate to do the needful to support the executive arm in its zeal to deliver the promises made to the people even as he called on members to go through the bill before the final reading and passage.
