From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
A war of attrition is brewing between Benue State Governemt and 23 council chairmen as the latter outrightly rejected their sack from office.
Recalled that the State Assembly acted on a memo from the governor and suspended all the council chairman and councilors on allegation of misappropriation of funds, directing them to hand over to DGSAs
They were also, asked to hand over official vehicles in their possession pending conclusion of investigation on them.
But displeased with the directive and action of the Government that dispatched a correspondence through the office of the Permanent Secretary Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to them to comply , the council chairmen under the aegis of Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, dared the Governor insisting that they will not obey the directives.
While addressing newsmen at the weekend at the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP Secretariat, the State ALGON Chairman Michael stated without the slightest modicum of ambiguity or prevarication that they do not recognize such purporting of their suspension from office from such quarters neither do they consider themselves under any obligation to give heed to same or comply with any directive..
He maintained strongly that their position derives a fundamental base from the incontrovertible fact of their offices being a creation of law as guaranteed under the supreme umbrella of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As Amended in 1999) which recognizes the tier of government we function at as the third in a tripod made up of the Federal, State and Local.
“We were elected as council chairmen on 30th April, 2022 in the local council elections conducted by the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) and sworn into office on 29th June, 2022.
“We, in line with the provision of extant law proclaimed the legislative councils in our various areas which were also duly elected and thereafter forwarded to them our nominations for the offices of Supervisors whom we swore into the various statutorily designated offices, together with Special Advisers to our offices.
“We were not appointed into office but were elected by the electorate of Benue State and vested with a mandate which is guaranteed under law, with the procedure for the administration of the councils under our leadership clearly provided for under the Local Government Establishment Law of Benue State.
“It is, therefore, not known to us under such law, that we and the entirety of the government at our tier of it can be sacked in the manner as purported by the state Assembly and the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
“We equally defer to the judgement of the National Industrial Court holden in Makurdi which barred the government of Benue State at all levels from taking any action as seeks to temper with our lawfully recognized mandate as elected council chairmen.
“That judgement of court is still subsisting and we are not even aware that government appealed against it.
“We expect the government of Benue State to lead the way on the quest for strengthening an order of law and respect for due process in Benue, rather than promoting impunity and the sort of anarchy we are seeing in the actions of the state Assembly and the local government bureau.
“We as Chief Security Officers of the 23 local government areas of Benue State are critical stakeholders and leaders in the state and will at all times be willing to tow the path of peace, law and order, and this we have been doing since being sworn into office in our various councils.
“However, we will not surrender to illegality and impunity as is being contrived against us.
“If we surrender to the unlawful purported suspension preferred against us, we will be doing a disservice to Benue State.
“In resisting the impunity, we are doing a duty to the state in line with our sworn oath to discharge the functions vested to our office for the good of the people.
“We reiterate that we do not recognize the purported suspension of our councils together with the legislative arms of our councils, and as such will not comply with it”,they insisted.
Reacting through his Chief Press Secretary, Tersoo Kula, governor Hyacinth Alia exoressed surprised that the council chairmen have chosen to react this way, insisting that they have only been suspended from office, to pave way for a seamless investigation, not sacked.
He denied knowledge of any court injunction restraining the State government from sacking the council chairmen.
