Anambra LGs: Soludo sacks 21 transition committee chairmen
By Emma Ogbuehi
As pressure continues to mount on the Anambra State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, to fulfil his inaugural promise, the governor has sacked all the 21 local government transition chairmen in the state.
Soludo had during the 2021 governorship campaign and even at swearing-in as governor on March 17, 2022, assured all that he would conduct local government election within six months in office.
However, almost three years in office, he is yet o fulfil the promise. Stakeholders, who worried that the promise was yet to be fulfilled, were unhappy that by January 2024, it was exactly 10 years since the last local government election was conducted in the state.
Soludo asked the sacked chairmen to hand over the affairs of the councils to the Heads of Local Government Administrations (HLGAs).
The sack order was contained in a letter signed by the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Collins Nwabunwanne, dated Friday, May 17.
The order, directed the chairmen to hand over to the HLGAs latest on Monday, May 20.
The letter read: “Following the expiration of your tenure as Transition Committee Chairman, you are hereby directed to hand over the affairs of your Local Government Council to the Head of Local Government Administration (HLGA), in your respective Local Government Councils.
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“This directive takes effect from Monday, 20th day of May, 2024. Thank you for your service to the state.
“All replies to be addressed to the Honourable Commissioner.”
There are expectations that Soludo will finally conduct local government election in the state, based on the public outcry.
The governor had last week directed that party stakeholders should nominate candidates in their local government areas for transition committees.
He said out of the three, one must be a woman from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) stakeholders.
The message was conveyed to all the transition committee chairmen by the special adviser to the governor on political matters, Dr. Alex Obiogbolu.
The directive said: “The party stakeholders in each Local Government are expected to meet on May 18th or 19th 2024, to consider and recommend for his consideration, three persons for the position of TC Chairman and three persons for Local Government Education Secretaries.
“The three recommendations for Transition Committee Chairmen shall include at least one woman; while the three recommendations for Education Secretary shall be two women and one man.”
Anambra state is one of the states in the country where transition committee had become a norm.
The last local government election was held by the former governor, Peter Obi, few weeks before the expiration of his second tenure
As a result, opposition parties and major stakeholders had been calling for elections into the local government system, arguing that state governors had stifled local government system through transition committee chairmen.
In December 2023, stakeholders, including monarchs, clerics and residents expressed worry at the non-conduct of local government elections by Soludo.
They lamented that the last time elections were conducted at that tier of government was in 2014.
As a result, for ten years now, the 21 local governments in Anambra State have been run by appointed caretaker committee chairmen.
