By; Anthony Anyanwu
The embattled Local Government Chairman of the 27 Local Government Councils in the State has taken their case to the Inspector General of Police and the leadership of the National Assembly. The action Imo Trumpeta gathered is sequel to the refusal of Governor Rochas Okorocha to comply with the Court of Appeal judgement of Thursday 5th July which ordered the Council Chairmen back to work. According to the judgement by Hon. Justice Uwani Musa Abba Aji which said, “that by the virtue of the provisions of section 23(1) of the Local Government Administration law No.15 of 2000 (as amended), the Appellants have a guaranteed tenure of office as democratically elected chairman commencing from the date of inauguration on 9th, August, 2010”. Justice Abba further made it clear that the Governor who is the 2nd respondent in the matter had no legal right to neither dissolve either by himself or his agents a democratically elected Local Government Chairman nor do any appointment in their position under the circumstance. Consequently, ordered the sacked Chairmen and Councillors back to office within 24hours from the judgement. But refusing to comply with this order, the Governor rather deployed security agents to the various Councils to ensure that the Chairman do not gain entry into the Councils. Piqued by this development, the Council Chairman and the PDP leadership in Imo state yesterday headed to Abuja where they served both the Court judgement and order to the Inspector General of Police. They also took their compliant to the National Assembly where they also met with the leadership of the National Assembly. Speaking to Imo Trumpeta over the telephone, the PDP has accordingly served the State Commissioner of police with both the Court judgement and order. He insisted that as a law abiding party, that the PDP will definitely regain the seats peacefully. According to Chief Egu, the Imo State PDP secretary general “I am hopefully that with all these services to the Commissioner of Police, he will withdraw his men from the Local Government Councils to give way for the elected Chairmen to resume work accordingly”
