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The Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, Imo state, this morning shamed Gov. Rochas Okorocha as it reinstated all LG chairmen and councilors sacked by the governor last year.
The Court held that the governor lacked the powers to sack an elected government.
Subsequently, Rochas has had to swallow the bitter pill to remove all his political associates he had put in office as Transition Chairman.
The reinstated LG chairmen and their councilors are to resume work at their various council headquarters starting tomorrow morning. It is recalled that a High Court had held that the governor’s action was illegal. But the judge who made the observation fell short of reinstating the chairmen.
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Is this not just another way, a conspiracy to bring under development, chaos and political instability to Imo state? Those Council officers were not appropriately elected. In fact, none was elected, they were hand-picked by ex-Gov Ikedi Ohakim. Who does not know the jibiti and mago mago that Ikedi Ohakim used to bring them to office to help him win re-election? How can Ohakim’s loyalists work with Gov. Okorocha? They can only be here to work counter to the rescue mission in Imo state. The people of Imo state must reject/appeal this unpopular ruling of the court. Those council officers must not come back to start to ruin Imo state from where they and their Ohakim stopped last year.
Ignorance is a bliss but only fools enjoy it. Nnamdi you have give yourself away a puppet of illegality and political misfit. How on earth dare you say the LGA Chairmen were not elected when those live issues were a common ground on govt/LGA chairmen’s sides. Democracy is not about individuals but about institutions. The relationship between the Governor of a State and an elected LGA Chairman is fixed by the Constitution. In any event how is ROCHAS managing to work with GEJ at the federal level since they are not both from the same party. The man who is the greatest looser is the Chief Judge of Imo State BA Njemanze who saw no evil, heard no evil but did evil by refusing to uphold the rule of law!
NNAMDI EKE,YOU HAVE JUST EXPOSED YOUR IGNORANCE.
HOW CAN AN ‘ELECTED’ GOVERNOR DWELL IN ILLEGALITY?
CAN GEJ,THE PRESIDENT DISMISS HIM?
HE JUST DISGRACED HIMSELF AS A LAWLESS GOVERNOR.
DEMOCRACY IS ABOUT THE RULE OF LAW AND NOT HOW MANY HOUSES A GOVERNOR CAN BRING DOWN WITH MOBILE POLICEMEN.
THE IG MUST CALL HIS MEN TO ORDER OTHERWISE ROCHAS WILL MESS HIM UP.
ROCHAS SHOULD RETURN THE LOCAL GOVT FUNDS IN HIS KITCHEN.
ROGUE GOVERNOR ROCHAS DOING PROJECTS NOT DESIGNED AS IF IMO IS HIS PRIVATE ESTATE.
NO WONDER THE PDP ELDERS DENIED HIM THE TICKET IN 1999.
WE NOW KNOW BETTER
@Njemanze & Chimdindu,
To suit your purpose, you left the substance in my comment and turned to blackmail. The substance is that none of those LGA officials being reinstated by the Appeal Court was truly elected by the electorate in their respective LGAs. So does talk of sacking a democratically-elected government come in because Ohakim hastened to swear them in at odd hours less than a day after he hand-picked them? You know it. Imolites know it. Time has now elapsed, else, any Imolite could have gone to court to upturn their so-called elections; because insurmountable evidences abound all over the LGAs of Imo state to attest to the fact that they were all hand picked by ex-governor Ikedi Ohakim mainly for them to enable him win re-election. Stop supporting evil, whatever you stand to benefit from evil. Imo state people may never, without appeal, have what is seen to be designed to send back the hands of the clock in the state.
NNAMDI EKE pls can you explain to imo state citizens and to the appeal court how the LG chairmen were handpicked by the past governor?
With the Appeal Court ruling against the order of the government of Gov. Rochas regarding the disbanding of LGA leadership upon assuming office last year, it is clear the Governor and his men and women to know that they cannot win all or loose all the time. It was also because of the fear to loose the case in court that the Governor put in place an unpopular fifth tier “Town Union Council” government – bringing the Ezes and Union leaders into day to day clashes of minds and resources control. Anxiety had therefore gripped the locales more than ever.
The best that can help is to accept the rule of law and congratulate the court for doing its work to use the law and constitution to foster democracy in the state. Let the Governor quickly tell Imo state people that the court has spoken and the court’s decision will be followed to move the state forward. Let him also say, as the Governor, he is working for everyone. Bringing the disbanded LGA leaders back is part of accommodating everyone in working and putting them to the service of the people of the state and Nigeria. It is not something to make noise about or grind axes of winners and losers. No one is a loser here because we are working for everyone.
Encourage the LGA officers to show they can creatively and selflessly work for the people or get replaced by the people themselves if they fail. Let the governor stand tall and say, “Only productive service and result delivered to the people in their service areas will keep any LGA leaders in office.” That is democracy! That is the power of the law to promote inclusion, order and development.
This Governor has now a chance to play the politics of community leadership, but not going about wasting resources in the courts to trumpet his ego fever. An action Governor such as Governor Rochas Okorocha can do better.
Let forget sentiments and vendeta. Owelles decisions are selfish and undemocratic. Was his own election not marred with inadequacies? He sacked them because they were elected during Ohakims regime. He sacked the 10000 jobs beneficiaries,sacked local Government workers em ployed from 2009 to 2011,sacked Imo women that cleans the State capital because of Ohakim, thats personal vendeta, i dont think this kind of fellow has the charisma to rule Nigeria largely well,with this irrational and unconstitutional action. This free Education is non qualitative since there is not enough teachers to teach the students. Let him be sincere, Edo state Governor gave above 10000 jobs and also built infrastructures/free Education and didnt sack LG Chairmen(PDP)