By STANLEY NWANOSIKE

Enugu State may appoint Transitional Chairmen in its 17 council areas within a few weeks as there are no signs of the usual local government elections coming.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who had been monitoring political trends in the state, on Friday reported that the tenure of the elected 17 council chairmen and 260 ward councilors ends this December.

The correspondent, who had taken time out to often visit the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) office, observed that activities at the commission’s office remained very low, with only security men in the compound.

Some six weeks ago, a Time Table for Council Elections in Enugu State appeared in the social media but it was immediately refuted by the state electoral body as “fake and not coming from the commission”.

When NAN contacted the Administrative Secretary of the Commission, Mr Chukwudi Amah, he said that the public should discountenance the timetable in the social media as “it did not emanate from the commission”.

“Please exercise patience as we will officially call the press and other stakeholders the day we will make the authentic timetable available to the public,” Amah said.

However, in the course of unraveling what is ongoing, a PDP Chieftain, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Gov. Peter Mbah might have cancelled the election when they presented an “humongous budget of over N1 billion for the election to him”.

“The governor, considering the state’s limited resources and need to ensure provision of basic public amenities, might have resolved to go for the Transitional Chairmen,” he said.

Reacting, a PDP Councillorship Aspirant in Enugu South LGA Ward 4, Mr Richard Abah, said that the transitional arrangement would close his chances of becoming a councillor, which he had been aspiring for in the past two years.

“In Transitional council arrangement, the governor is at liberty to pick only those he knows and it ends there. This is not democratic at all,” Abah said.

Another PDP Chieftain in Enugu State, Chief Uche Aninwanne, said that it is still early and preemptive to say for sure that the election would not hold.

Aninwanne said that the governor can make a u-turn if the stakeholders sensitize him on the positive need to have an elective government at the council level. A Labour Party Chieftain in Enugu, Mr Chidi Nnam, said that the party faithful were quietly studying the unfolding situation.

“Labour Party will respond appropriately in due time as it is constitutional right to have an elective members and democracy at the council level of government,” Nnam said. (NAN)

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