The Enugu State government and stakeholders from the state yesterday approved the setting up of Local Government Caretaker Committees for the 17 local council areas in the state pending the time adequate budgetary allocations would be provided in the 2016 state appropriation for the conduct of local government elections in the state.
The stakeholders who gathered at the Old Government Lodge, Enugu gave the approval after Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi briefed them on various programmes and projects of his administration, including the issue of the pending local government polls since the tenure of the local government councils will expire on January 4, 2016.
Consequently, the governor announced at the expanded meeting that “in order to avoid vacuum, on 4th January, 2016, the local government caretaker committees will be constituted and this is in keeping with the extant laws of Enugu state.
“Whatever we are doing will be in consonance with the Local Government Laws”, he told the political and opinion leaders including deputy senate president, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, immediate past governor off the state, Chief Sullivan Chime, former information minister, Chief Nnia Nwodo, former minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, among very many others.
Addressing the people, Governor Ugwuanyi had offered two reasons the local council polls would not hold before the expiration of the tenure of the present councils, saying that the first reason is “the on-going local government staff audit and other reforms” in that tier of government in which the state government wants to fish out ghost workers said to be prevalent in the system.
