To some, hopes for the local government elections purportedly anticipated this November were buried temporarily last week when the hope to conduct elections into the local government areas in Anambra state was dashed by the sack of Chairman of the Anambra state Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) , Prof Titus Eze over financial impropriety by the State House of Assembly.Eze was sacked through a letter from office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) to the state House of Assembly citing an audit report on the activities of ANSIEC, which allegedly found him guilty of misappropriating the sum of N100 Million and another N6 Million meant for the review of voters register in the state. The Audit report was submitted to the state Assembly by the Auditor-General of the state, Mr. G. Abadom.
This the state government did because the Governor could not have sacked the ANSIEC Chairman without two /third majority of the members of the House. So during their sitting last week presided over by the Speaker, Rt Hon Clair Nwebili (Ogbaru II Constituency), 23 members voted in favour of Prof Titus Eze’s sack out of the 24 that attended the sitting. The House has 30 members. Prof Eze was accused of embezzling N100 Million meant for preparation of local government election as he only spent N6 million without due process. He was also alleged to have embezzled another N6 Million meant for voters register in collaboration with INEC as INEC said the ANSIEC did not contribute a dime to them during the exercise.
But a branch of the lopsided party , the Anambra State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has flayed the sack of Prof. Eze by the House. They believe the state governor; Mr. Peter Obi is using it as a ploy to definitely postpone the conduct of local government elections tentatively fixed for November this year.
The party claimed the action of the governor has indicated what they already knew through security reports and had been raising the alarm in the past one month that the Peter Obi administration had no plans to conduct local government elections after the last council elections of 2002.
PDP, through one of its factional but allegedly sacked chairman, Prince Ken Emeakayi said the chairman’s sack was a ploy by the state government to postpone indefinitely the conduct of council elections in the state as the state governor would have sent a replacement for the vacant position of chairman to the House of Assembly for approval if he was serious about conducting council polls.
Emeakayi emphatically said the party understood the governor was having problems with the APGA national chairman over the latter’s insistence that the council elections be conducted against Obi’s wish.
He had said, “The so called audit report alleged the ANSIEC Chairman embezzled N6m. The voter review job the sacked chairman said was awarded to the person introduced by the governor has been paid since 2007. How come other members of the commission were not sacked and who approved the money for that purpose for ANSIEC? It goes to show that what PDP said about going into the 2010 governorship election with a fraudulent register is true. If the job was given to the person introduced by the governor then the question is, what job has he done?” he queried.
Emekayi may have been reacting without knowing that already an acting chairman Hon Sylvester Okonkwo had talked tough on his plans for the election.
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) through its State Chairman, Chief Amechi Obidike towed similar line as he described it as a ploy by the Obi administration to delay the conduct of local government election in the state.
But the state Chairman of APGA, Chief Mike Kwentoh dismissed their claims and further alleged that the sacked ANSIEC Chairman had been hobnobbing with the leader of ACN, and the Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial zone, Dr. Chris Ngige.
However, Professor Eze , a former commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Resident Commissioner (INEC) in four states including Cross River, Jigawa, Kwara and Abia Statessaid he is consulting with his lawyers and family to decide the next action but did not rule out a legal battle with the state.
Eze now claiming he was not consulted by the State House of Assembly to hear his own side of the story despite the grave allegations leveled against him by the audit panel however threatened not to allow his hard earned image to be rubbushed by the house and government as he said,’ the law says in section 201 of the constitution,if you must remove me as Chairman of ANSIEC , the House should initiate action not the governor writing them that I should be removed . I have a family ……and they would advice me on the next action to take. I am still consulting……………’’
Prof Eze claimed he was people before he accepted to serve only to be messed up. He has served for only two years out of the 5 years tenure but was sacked for alleged embezzlement. He replaced Chief Cornel Umeh. He was accused of being a card-carrying member of the PDP and inciting Commissioners in the Commission to resign enmass to create impression that Obi did not want local government election.
Eze insisted that he did not embezzle any money as all the money spent was official, adding ,’’ if they say I embezzle N150 Million , it is outrageous because you cant embezzle more than you were given. He said the commission had N77 million in the bank and there was no need telling auditors about it when they came because it was in the bank. He insisted that if you must eat money it must be used for doing something’’.
He continued ,’’ we have N77 million laying fallow in the Fidelity bank account of ANSIEC ‘’. He claimed that the monies they spent was in transport and other logistics not only by him but by every staff of the commission and to buy essential materials before the election was shifted after they had fixed November for the election .
He said the state government had released only the sum of N100 million to the commission since 2009 in preparation for the local government elections, but was not satisfied by the way and manner some of the money were spent. He insisted they used the money to do the necessary things they suppose to do and cannot be alleged as reckless spending. He said that he was ready to account for every kobo spent during his administration.
Acting chairman of the Commission, Hon. Sylvester Okonkwo said that the commission would be transparent in all its activities with all the registered political parties. He said that staff welfare would be given top priority attention. He noted that the issue of temporary staff that had operated in the office for a long time would equally be looked into.
“We want the entire world to commend the state and the commission; the era of writing results under the mango trees is over. This ANSIEC is lucky to have men of God in its fold”.
He warned political parties to sit up as the election would soon hold but insisted that every party’s National Chairman must sign before a candidate would be accepted to participate in the election to avoid multiple candidates. He promised the election must be free and fair.
According to him, “the good thing is that we already have the voters’ register and we have identified all the polling stations, but the date for the election I cannot say for now.”
He explained that all the processes initiated by his predecessor would be continued. He further said that the next programme on its agenda would be a training programme for its staff to prepare them adequately for the election. He said that the commission would invite staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and other stakeholders to mount the training programme for the staff.
The chairman commended the state governor for what he described as his magnanimity in funding the commission, noting that in addition to the N100 million released to ANSIEC last year, the commission also got N8 million for the renovation of its offices, while its overhead has been the best in the state.
Although Eze not only dismissed the allegation of financial impropriety saying it was the handiwork of those who don’t want free and fair election, he is was not sure of how much in the bank as another media not Daily Champion reported his as saying N82 Million is still in the bank. Eze is claiming he used N6 million to update the voters register that was faulty in agreement with about four members of Obi’s cabinet but did not mention them. He described the contract of validating the faulty voters register as ,’’reconstructing the register’’ for N6 Million.Before now the commission was busy telling all who care to listen to them that elections would be conducted immediately after the general elections and later December this year but with this sack of ANSIEC Chairman Prof Eze who was said to be above board when he was appointed , the chances of an election is limited.
The state Government has been mute over the sack as all entreaties by this correspondent to get their reaction failed, but investigations revealed that in order not to be cut napping or said to be exchanging words with the sacked ANSIEC Boss , the officials of the state government called either refused to pick their calls or decline comment on the issue. The Governor did not speak about the issue throughout the numerous functions he did over the week.
However Daily Champion recalled that the Governor had on inauguration assured that the elections would be conducted into the local government areas as soon as possible depending on the readiness of the ANSIEC claiming he has no overriding powers on their functioning as the commission is Independent until the bubble burst last week that got the ANSIEC Boss sacked.
Now that the Transition Committee Chairmen for the Twenty-One Local Government Councils of the State have been sworn in for another three months in office, following the approval by the State House of Assembly for the committees to serve another three months after the expiration of their three months, what is the fate of local government elections in Anambra state for democracy to be complete appears to be the question on the lips of politicians.
Despite that Obi urged them to work harder and use the three months to further consolidate government programmes at the grassroots, Daily Champion notes that majority of the opinion sought at the grass root supported a democratically elected government at the grass root to support the vision and transformation agenda of the Obi administration in the state and to restore confidence in governance.
Source1: ODOGWU EMEKA ODOGWU, AWKA
Source2: Mazi Odera
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