Why Uzodinma Abandoned LG Election In Imo

By Chioma Nkama

The proposed Local Government Area election in Imo State slated for March 12, 2022 will no longer hold.

Part of the assurances the state governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma gave people of the state was that he would conduct LGA election giving rise to the setup of the Chairman and Members of the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission, ISIEC. 

The ISIEC in November of last issue issued a notice for the conduct for March 12 2022, after the governor had reiterated promise to have the election conducted.

Reports reaching Trumpeta have it that the Uzodinma administration won’t go ahead with the March 12 Council Polls going by latest development in ISIEC.

Trumpeta observed that apart from no activity going on  in the commission’s office to despite the outline of programs for the March 12,2022 date, investigation however revealed that ISIEC has also backed out from having the exercise that  second Saturday of next month. 

A source from the ISIEC revealed that insecurity ravaging the state is considered a major factor that has led to the stoppage of the council polls. The source further disclosed that due to the level of insecurity in some parts of the state it would be counter- productive to hold such sensitive exercise for now.

Confirming the issue of insecurity as factor that has put the election on hold, acting operational Commissioner of ISIEC  who spoke to our report stated that ISIEC had a meeting with Inter Party Advisory Committee, IPAC where the issue of security was raised and to avoid endangering lives of the people at the local areas, the date for the election was relaxed without a new date.

ISIEC while in the meeting considered that no election is worth the lives of any citizen for the commission to go ahead with the conduct

It was also learnt that ISIEC and IPAC agreed not to go ahead on March 12 2022 since security change is a threat in some localities.