How Covid-19 Stopped Local Government Polls In Cross River State

By Joseph ETTA in Calabar
The proposed March 28th Elections has been postponed in view of the ravaging Corona Virus pandemic.
The March 28th deadline set by the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) for the conduct of Local Government Election failed to hold Last weekend.
In a chat with Daybreak, the CROSIEC Chairman Dr. Mike Ushie said, the Umpire Commission has no choice than comply with the government directives of no public gathering and social distancing. He opined that a new date for the election will be announced soon.
Meanwhile, Daybreak learnt that the tenure of the last duly elected Council officials expired in Cross River State since December, 2016 thereby compelling the state Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade to appoint Civil Servants Known as Heads of Local Government Administration (HOLGA) as head of the third tier of Government in the state.
However, they are barred from spending statutory allocation but only given salary and running cost in line with the newly introduced federal reforms.