Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Imo state, South-East Nigeria, have urged the state’s House of Assembly to pass a resolution compelling the State Governor, Hope Uzodimma to conduct local government elections before May 2024. Speaking at a joint news conference in Owerri on Sunday, the groups noted that the last time Imo held LG election was in August 2018, and that even then, the set of LGA officials elected were sacked in May 2019 when Governor Hope Uzodimma came to power. The CSOs which included the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Christian Aid, and the Tax Justice and Governance Platform therefore noted that the people of the state are no longer progressing as they should due to the absence of leadership at the LG level. They gave Gov. Hope Uzodimma a three-month ultimatum within which to conduct local government elections in the state. In the statement they read at the press conference entitled “Imo State Economic Challenges and Debt Management amid Economic Uncertainties in Nigeria,” the state Coordinator of Tax Justice and Governance Platform, Mr Chibundu Uchegbu, said the need for the LG elections was long due. Uchegbu said: “The people of the state are no longer progressing as they should due to the absence of leadership at the LG level. “The last time Imo held LG election was in August 2018 with the set of elected LGA officials disbanded in less than one year in office – specifically in May 2019 – by a successive government. “Since that time to date, the affairs of LG system in the state are being run by unelected officials, therefore, denying the people their democratic rights, aspirations and privileges. “This is a clear violation of Section 7 (1) of 1999 Constitution as amended, which says “The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the government of every state shall subject to Section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a Law, which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance functions of such councils.” He said that in spite of the huge sums of money injected into their treasury from the Federation Account Allocation Committee on monthly basis, LGs are not living up to their responsibilities to the people in grassroots. “This is because the State Government prefers to use appointees to run the affairs of the LGAs,” he said. They urged the State Government not to interfere in the activities of the LG Chairmen when they were elected to enable them to function optimally.