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LG POLLS: Is Okorocha daring the law for political survival?

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LG POLLS: Is Okorocha daring the law for political survival?

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state plans to hold local government elections in the state in June 2018.

The election will be the first of its kind in the state since May 2011 when he assumed office.

On June 6, 2011, he dissolved the local government administration which was constituted by his predecessor, Ikedi Ohakim, following an election conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) in the state.

The election, which held in October 2011, legitimately brought 27 chairmen and 307 councillors into office after they were inaugurated publicly and without encumbrances on August 8. There is no record of any legal issues against the conduct of the election.

In dissolving the elected administration nine months into a three-year tenure, Okorocha refused to pay-off all the local government chairmen and councilors affected. He also refused to pay them salaries for the last two months of their stewardship.

He had argued that the election that brought them into office was held hurriedly in the twilight of the Ohakim administration.

He also rebuffed entreaties by well-meaning individuals in the state to rescind his decision not to pay off the chairmen and councillors.

However, all the affected officials took the bold step to challenge his action in court. In the matter, the chairmen and councillors also asked the court to determine if the governor had powers to dissolve an elected administration at the local government level. They also asked the court to determine if by the governor’s act, their tenure of office had elapsed.

They also asked the Imo state High Court for an order reversing the dissolution and an order reinstating them to their jobs. They also sought a consequential order to pay them all their unpaid salaries and allowances.

The chairmen and councillors were however disappointed by the state high court which upheld the governor’s action. But undaunted, the victims of Okorocha’s action escalated the matter to the Court of Appeal which upheld their appeal and ordered that they be reinstated.

Rather than obey the order of the Court of Appeal, Gov. Okorocha employed the services of members of the Imo Security Network (the state’s vigilante service) and used same to prevent the reinstated chairmen and councillors from gaining access to their offices.

After a stand-off that lasted several weeks, Okorocha ordered withdrawal of the vigilante guards and allowed the reinstated chairmen and councilors access to their office. He however withheld allocations to the local governments, and refused to pay the chairman and councillors as ordered by the court.

As the chairmen and councillors attempted to re-ignite their offices for work, Okorocha struck again and announced the sack of the chairmen and councillors. He argued that their tenure had elapsed and as such he forced them out of office. In their stead, he appointed caretaker committees.

But the chairmen and councillors argued that their office was yet to elapse as the interruption by the governor ought to be recovered, and also insisted that they must be paid their salaries and allowances for the period that Okorocha kept them away from office illegally. As expected, Okorocha did not bulge.

Following the new twist, the chairmen and councillors approached the Supreme Court. They asked the apex court to determine their tenure in the light of the interruption which was forced on them by Okorocha’s disregard for the constitution.

From their calculation, they enjoyed only nine months before Okorocha struck and less than two months after they were reinstated by the Court of Appeal. This means that out of a 36-month tenure, they enjoyed less than 12 months with a backlog of unpaid salaries and allowances.

Read also: 2019: Catholic Church in full support of my choice of successor, Okorocha boasts

The matter comes up again at the Supreme Court on April 23.

That would be some two months before Okorocha’s planned local government elections hold. But the issue for the chairmen and councillors is if the proposed election would hold in the face of an injustice that is yet to be redressed by the state government.

The National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), under which umbrella the chairman and councilors have been fighting their cause, has said it will not allow the election to hold.

In its position made known in a statement signed by Chief Emmanuel Odor and Aguronye Bede for Owerri Zone, Messrs Ezekiel Basil and E. E Amaefule, Okigwe Zone and Ezekiel Chukwukere for Orlu Zone, NULGE said “our attention has been drawn to another prank by Imo State’s worst problem today, Governor Okorocha, purporting to conduct local government elections in June, 2018, in clear breach of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which he swore to defend”.

An ex-chairman, known to this writer, said the governor may be over-reaching himself by planning an election when he is yet to respect the order of the Court of Appeal.

“We shall stop the election because it cannot legally hold when the matter of the truncation of our tenure has not been determined. We are at the Supreme Court pursuing it. It is our right that was abridged and we will fight it till the end. So, whatever Okorocha is planning for June may just be another academic exercise”, the ex-chairman said.

Okorocha is said to be forcefully pushing for the council election so as to raise a new army of delegates to the convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as it has become obvious to him that the party’s machinery in Imo state have been taken from him.

Analysts say that with the outcome of the party’s first stakeholder meeting which held last weekend in Owerri, it is obvious that Okorocha may need to pull a magic to get the party machinery back to his side in his effort to enthrone his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, as his successor.

According to a participant at the meeting, Okorocha boycotted the meeting after his effort to pull it to the Government House Owerri was thwarted by the State chairman, Hillary Eke, working with Sen. Ifeanyi Araraume, Sen. Osita Izunaso and Sen. Benjamin Uwajumogu.

According to the participant, Okorocha’s new hope of recruiting delegates to help him deliver Nwosu is through the local government elections he is planning. “Apart from that, he is finished. Araraume and his team have taken the party from him. All the bigwigs in Imo APC who could become delegates for 2019 governorship election are with the Araraume camp. So, Okorocha needs to pull another magic if he still intends to push for Uche Nwosu”.

As it is, despite the displaced chairmen and councillors, analysts believe that many within the APC family, who are opposed to Okorocha’s plans to impose his son-in-law as governor, will work against the conduct of the elections “because will he conduct council elections in the twilight of his two-terms? Was it not the same reason he gave for dissolving the chairman and Councilors elected and inaugurated by Ohakim? asked Nze Paul Maduforo in Owerri.

By Femi Qudus

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