Abia State Elders’ Consultative Forum yesterday said the planned May 19, 2023 local government election by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu was “suspicious and malicious.” The elders said the election was not the priority of the people.
This came on the heels of a state high court injunction restraining the outgoing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration from conducting the poll which would be the third since its inception in 2015.
The forum stated this in a statement by the national president, Archbishop Princewill Ariwodor and national secretary, Rev. Joseph Adiele which was made available to newsmen Umuahia, the state capital.
Ariwodor said the poll, scheduled to hold 10 days to the end of Ikpeazu’s administration was “ill-advised, ill-timed, smacks of bad faith, and a waste of the scarce resources the state had been grappling with.
“Such a move, if encouraged or supported will earn more debts and liabilities to the incoming administration when salaries, gratuities, and pensions are owed up to 40 months.”
While expressing concern that the incoming Labour Party administration might not recognise the outcome of the poll, the elders added that there was the need to avoid the “unnecessary brouhaha in the interest of peace.”
“Going by available records, the new administration will disband the councils which will spur acrimony and face-off with the government, leading to lawsuits that will polarise the state and deny it peace and stability,” he said.
The forum, which commended Ikpeazu for conducting the previous polls, urged him to avoid any act capable of plunging the state into crisis or setting the incoming administration against winners of the planned election.
Arguing that the previous polls were eloquent testimony of Ikpeazu’s democratic spirit, it, however, noted that going ahead with the planned polls would amount to laying land mines for the incoming administration.
Furthermore, it commended Ikpeazu for congratulating the governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti, and for urging losers of the March 18, 2023 poll not to resort to litigations to avoid distracting the incoming administration.
