Governor Aminu Masari on Tuesday blamed opposition parties in Katsina for the failure to conduct local government elections in the state.

“The opposition knew from Day One that they have been trying to sabotage the election and one good way to do that is through litigation.

“We have been to the state’s High Court, the Federal High Court and up to the Supreme Court not once, and not twice,’’ he told journalists in Katsina.

The governor accused the opposition of breaking their litigations into fractions so as to prolong the issue of local government elections and even make it impossible during his tenure.

“Luckily enough, this year, there was a decision by the Supreme Court that we should pay the sacked local government chairmen and councillors all their entitlements.

“The dissolution of their offices stands because even if they were in office, they would have completed their tenure,” the governor said.

He added that the opposition was sceptical about local government elections in the state by claiming that government was not sincere about its plan to conduct them in the first quarter of 2022.

The governor added that following the Supreme Court judgment, government set up a committee and almost 98 per cent of the payment to the affected officials was completed.

He said another committee was set up to conduct the local government elections in the first quarter of the new year. “More than 70 per cent of what is required for the election is on ground,” he said.

(NAN)