Sunday 6 December 2015

GOV. UGWUANYI SUSPENDS LOCAL GOVT ELECTIONS, PLANS TO ELEVATE IMT TO A DEGREE AWARDING INSTITUTION

Rt. Hon. Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi
Owing to the paucity of budgetary allocations for local government elections, the Governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has suspended the elections and has perfected plans to appoint caretaker committees for the state’s 17 councils.

Governor Ugwuanyi, otherwise known as Gburugburu, made this recent development known while addressing stakeholders at the old Government Lodge. He solicited for the backing of all stakeholders, as he took the decision in a bid not to create a vacuum in council administration since the tenure of the councils would expire on January 4, 2016. The stakeholders included the deputy president of the Senate, Chief Dr. Ike Ekweremadu, former governor of the state, Barrister Sullivan Chime, former information minister, Chief Nnia Nwodo, former minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, among others

In Chief Ugwuanyi’s own words: “Whatever we are doing will be in consonance with the Local Government Laws. In order to avoid any vacuum on January 4, 2016, caretaker committees will be constituted for the councils and this is in keeping with the extant laws of the state.”

The governor explained to the stakeholders his administration’s decision on the council administration. According to him, his government was eager to get rid of ghost workers common in that tier of government hence “the on-going council staff audit and other reforms” in council administration.

Gburugburu reminded the stakeholders that during the last meeting of the State Caucus at the Government House, it was agreed that all activities towards the council elections should be put on hold to enable the committee handling the exercise conclude its assignment.

He said: “It, indeed, appears to be a widely shared view among our people that it will be unwise and imprudent to conduct elections when this very important exercise has not been concluded.”

He made it known that the reason for insufficient funds for the election was that such expenses were not properly provided for in the state’s 2015 budget. The stakeholders agreed that the governor constitute the committees and hailed him for the numerous projects embarked upon and others in the offing.

Also, Chief Ugwuanyi, who is the immediate past House of Representatives Committee on Marine Transport, revealed to the stakeholders that the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, would be made a degree-awarding institution to elevate it to the same level as similar institutions elsewhere in the country established in the 1970s.

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