Bauchi ready to conduct LG polls — but there’s no money

The Bauchi government on Monday said it can’t fund the state’s local council elections.

Abdullahi Idrees, commissioner of information and tourism, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The government, while acknowledging the importance of the local council polls, said it’s been unable to raise about N2 billion needed for the election.

“We are not saying that it is not important, it is very, very important, but there is paucity of fund and we don’t have the fund for now to sponsor the local government election.

“But I want to tell you that the governor is ready to conduct local government election.

“The proposal runs into over N2 billion to conduct one single election. It is not much though, because you have to produce ballot papers, do delineation, collation and training of staff.

“Our hope and desire is that when funds are available, the local government elections will be conducted in Bauchi state,” he said.