If Information reaching is anything to go by, then the Sagbama Local Council will soon experience break down of law and order as forerunners of the governor had sowed a bitter seed to unseat the present executive chairman in the council, Chief Koku Gariga at all cost. Our reliable source revealed that the senior special assistant to thegovernor on domestic matters, Mr. Richman Samuel went to sagbama council with a tainted coastal bus with security agencies to carry away the elected councilors after their marathon sitting on that day. The source went further that on reaching government house, mobile phones were seized from the councilors before deliberations as both making calls and recording will not arise.
It is a public knowledge that last December 14, 2012 the Supreme Court in Abuja ruled that the former chairmen were illegally occupy the seat and therefore Chief Koku Gariga of Sagbama, Mr. Selekibina Saboh of Ekeremor and Deacon Ineye Igbaifegha of Kolokuma/Opokuma local
Government areas of the state. One councilor who pleaded not to be mentioned on print said they were actually invited to government house to ensure that the council Boss is removed from office before the proposed local government election in March this year.
“The government asked us to remove the chairman if he (chairman) fails to accept the nomination of government choice. Our mobile phones were seized and instructed not to disclose anything but I felt it is inhuman to punish an innocent man who had his mandate from the Supreme Court to rule the council, and the government is bent on causing problem in the council. I am also returning as councilor to the council but this is unfair even to a right thinking person in oursociety,” the source said.
A close aide to the governor said what the governor is doing is wrong in a democratic setting of our country because imposition of council vice chairman on the chairman is totally wrong, simply because the Nigerian first Lady, Dr. Dame Patience Jonathan suggested Hon. Waripamowei Dudafa who is now Special Adviser to the President on Domestic & Social Events as running mate to him, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson vehemently rejected the first lady’s nomination and picked the retired naval officer. So he should equally respect the rights of other elected political office holder because the chairman is the chief security officer of the local government area.
“If the governor fails to drop his ambition to nominate the vice chairman which the chairman whom I know will not succumb to his desire, will ignite uncontrollable political crisis in the area and the state because the present little peace the people are witnessing in the state,” the government house source said. A failed chairmanship aspirant said, the governor is self centered in the sense that the local government PDP chairman is from his constituency including the wrong chairmanship flag bearer who emerged after a Supreme Court pronouncement nullifying the election of the former chairmen as illegal.
“Even the state secretary of the party was not allowed to produce a councilor in his own ward, what a government is this? He presided over the party primary in the Sagbama local government area where he fixed his people and openly go against his political opponents in the area. Is this service to the people? How can governor produce all the councilors without recourse to other politicians? This is undemocratic and is authoritarian in nature,” he lamented. A professor of law said the Supreme Court Judgment stands as no chairmanship election in those three local government areas is conducted as the previous occupants were declared illegal.
Going by the Judgment, the sacked chairmen are to refund all money spent during their illegal tenure as required by law. The governor who is a learned colleague should know this by making no mistake to conduct any chairmanship elections, if he refuses and go ahead as he planned the law will bring them back as this will affect the smooth arrangement of council poll in the state. As this was done by his predecessor that has endangered the earlier arrangement, so the governor should think wise or else the law will take it own course, he warned.
When the chief press secretary to the governor was contacted, calls made to him were not pick for comment.
