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| - A former Nigerian presidential aide, Reno Omokri, has claimed that Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of Nigeria’s opposition Labour Party, was among the Nigerian state governors who refused to hold Local Government elections during his tenure as the governor of Anambra State.
Omokri made the claim following the recent judgement by the nation’s Supreme Court which affirmed the financial autonomy of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas (LGAs).
The Court delivered the judgement following a suit filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) against the 36 state governors.
The AGF had sued the state governors through their respective state attorneys-general.
The court declared that a state government had no power to appoint a caretaker committee and a local government council was only recognisable with a democratically-elected government.
The apex court put an end to the practice of appointing caretaker committees to run the councils by the state governors and declared that “a democratically-elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable.”
While many public figures commended the development, Obi did not make a public statement on the issue, according to Omokri.
Reacting to Obi’s silence, Omokri said in his X post on July 12, 2024:
“Those, like Peter Obi, who refused to hold Local Government elections, and have been stiffing the growths of Local Governments are not happy with the freedom acquired for Local Governments by the Tinubu administration.
“That is why the usually talkative Peter Obi, who posts on social media more than a teenage girl, has not said anything more than twenty-four hours after the Supreme Court verdict.
Obi and his supporters are still in shock! Obi is not happy that Local Governments are free. The Gbajue family is in mourning. There is no bad news for them to celebrate. And since they only talk when evil occurs, Obi is silent!”
The claim has garnered over 60,000 views, more than 200 comments and reposts each plus over 800 likes as of July 19, 2024.
CLAIM
Obi failed to conduct Local Government elections during his tenure as Anambra governor.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE as Obi conducted local government elections in January 2014 towards the end of his governorship tenure in the state.
The local government is Nigeria’s third tier of government. i.e the level of government closest to the grassroots.
Before he contested for the presidential seat under the Labour Party in 2023, Peter Obi served for eight years as the governor of Anambra State from March 17, 2006, to March 17, 2014.
On January 11, 2014, Local Government (LG) elections were held in the 21 local government areas (LGAs) in Anambra State. This was the first of such elections since 1998, according to a Channels TV report. Few weeks earlier, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had already declared Willie Obiano (Obi’s successor) as the winner of the state governorship election in Anambra State.
A review of media reports indicated that Obi inaugurated the 20 (out of the 21) elected chairmen of local government councils in the state, who won the seats under the banner of his political party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), at the time.
In his address then, Obi said his administration respected the Nigerian Constitution and that the local government system should be democratised every two years, noting that many obstacles delayed the LG elections.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Obi refused to conduct Local Government elections during his tenure as Anambra governor is FALSE; findings show that Obi conducted local government elections in January 2014 towards the end of his governorship tenure in the state.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
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