The Labour Party (LP) Anambra State governorship aspirant, Valentine Ozigbo, has accused Governor Chukwuma Soludo of enacting laws contrary to the 2022 Electoral Act ahead of the state’s local government election.
Valentine Ozigbo said Governor Soludo hurriedly fixed the 28 September local government election to build a power base for his re-election bid in 2025 by any means.
In a statement on Saturday, Ozigbo, former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, accused Soludo of planning his allies to retain his control of the federal allocations to the local government.
Ozigbo said, “Legitimate local government political leadership and administration are essential for delivering the true dividends of democracy to the people. Ndi Anambra from all sectors of society have long been advocating for this.
“Over two years ago, during his inauguration, Governor Soludo promised to establish a democratically elected LGA political leadership within his first year. However, he failed to fulfill this promise. Only after intense criticism from key stakeholders, myself included, following his two-year anniversary, did he hastily organize a poorly planned LGA election.
“In his typical autocratic fashion, as someone who believes he is the ‘wisest in the room’, the Governor and his associates set up a new ANSIEC and enacted laws that are wholly inconsistent with the Nigerian Constitution and the Nigerian Electoral Act 2022.
“The laws concerning the timing of elections, party nominations, and election dates have either been disregarded or outrightly contradicted. These manoeuvres are designed to install his allies, with a clear focus on controlling the FAAC allocation to LGAs, partly to build a power base for his re-election bid by any means necessary.
“Ndi Anambra will not tolerate this and will collectively reject this assault on our democracy!”
