The Kogi State government on Tuesday said that its inability to conduct election for various positions across the 21 local government areas in the state in the past two years was due to financial constraints occasioned by crunch in the economy.
Chief of Staff to the Kogi State governor, Edward Onoja stated this while fielding questions from journalists on a wide range of issues at a ministerial press briefing organized by the Kogi State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He said those clamouring for elections at the grassroots level would need to wait until the economy of the state improves.
Onoja added that there was no provision for elections into local government areas positions in the budget for the past two years because of the reduction in the state allocations from the federation account.
“Local government elections is not cheap; we are talking of a project in the region of N2 to 3 billion, when we are battling with civil service and pension reforms. It will be unfair to deny workers their salaries in the name of conducting local government elections”, he said.
Onoja also disclosed that the state government has been up to date in the payment of salaries, adding that only those who have not been cleared in the reforms were left out.
He however solicited the support of the media in highlighting the achievements of the “New Direction” government headed by Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
He said that the state government has concluded arrangement with the World Bank to flag-off the construction of 66 rural feeders totaling 500Km.
Credit: Daily Trust
