By Ugochukwu Alaribe

ABA—The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abia State has issued a 60-day ultimatum to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to organize local government elections in the state and bring governance closer to the grassroots.

Ikpeazu

It would be recalled that Ikpeazu had expressed the willingness of his administration to organize council polls, but however, blamed paucity of funds as a setback to the exercise.

As at press time, Vanguard gathered that the state government had ordered the State Independent Electoral Commission, ABSIEC, to submit to the government what it would cost the commission to organize the exercise in the state.

In a statement by the state Publicity Secretary of the party, Benedict Godson, the APC, described the Governor’s statement as deceitful and a tactics employed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, administration to continue to use transition committees to administer the local councils.

The party noted that the absence of grassroots government in the 17 council areas of the state have done more harm to democracy, adding that “the last time council elections were conducted in the state was during the first tenure of the immediate past administration and since then, it has been appointment of caretaker committees. This has continued under the present government and that has been responsible for high scale under-development at the local communities.”