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Akwa Ibom has no money to conduct LG polls –Gov Udom

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Akwa Ibom has no money to conduct LG polls –GovUdom

The governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, said the oil rich state has no money to conduct local government election.

This is coming as the governor plans to dissolve the present set of local government councils’ care­taker committees and appoint new ones as the state is financially broke to conduct election into the 31 local government councils.

The governor said during the weekend at the June edition of the prayer meeting held at Latter House Chapel, Governor’s Lodge in Uyo that the proposed dissolution was based on the need to align with the constitutional provisions regulating local government administration in the state.

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Surprisingly, the Commissioners for Finance and Local Government Affairs, Messrs Akan Okon and Victor Antai, respectively, last Friday said the state was broke, and as such could not afford to conduct local government elections.

Antai stated that state’s federal allocation for one month will not be enough to conduct local government election going by the proposal of the state independent national electoral commission.

According to him, the state records a deficit of N700 million monthly between what is allocated to the local government from the Federation Account and actual expenditure on Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE and primary school teachers’ salaries.

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