After a last ditch effort to extend their tenure through to 2013, as local government council chief executives, the 27 reinstated chairmen finally lost out on Friday, as Governor Rochas Okorocha summarily dissolved the third-tier administration in Imo State, replacing the chairmen with Directors of Administration and General Services (DAGS).

Chinedu Offor, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy told BusinessDay in an interview at Government House, Owerri, on Friday, that the state government went back to the High Court and sought for the lifting of the earlier injunction
restraining it from dissolving the local council administration.

“The Governor did not dissolve the local government administration. Rather, the tenures of the local government chairmen had expired on August 8. So the government went back to court to seek the lifting of the injunction. “Once the judge lifted the injunction, the Governor appointed DAGS to replace the council chairmen whose tenures had expired on August 8. They had wanted the judge to grant them tenure elongation, but the judge didn’t grant their request. So, practically their tenures had expired. Since there can’t be a vacuum in governance, that’s why His Excellency, Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha asked the DAGS to take charge in the LGAs,” the Information Commissioner explained.

The 27 reinstated chairmen earlier last week sought for and obtained an Owerri High Court injunction restraining Governor Okorocha from dissolving their administration, or replacing their positions with DAGS or Transition Committee (TC) chairmen; citing that their tenures was three years, and not two.

Enyinnaya Onuegbu leading 26 other chairmen had prayed the court to stop the Governor from sacking them and their councillors until their tenure runs its full course by next year. He told the court that they (council chairmen) were aware that
Governor Okorocha planned to dissolve the councils’ leadership by Wednesday 8 August; after they were reinstated in July by a Court of Appeal judgment. The Appeal Court had also ruled that Governor Okorocha erred in June 2011 when he sacked the local council chairmen.

Meanwhile, the chairmen’s matter is slated for hearing at the Owerri High Court on Monday, to determine whether or not, their tenures had expired on 8 August.Until that happens, observers say that months of political impasse in Imo may not yet be over. While all these are playing out governance in the 27 LGAs has been severely affected. For weeks now, most of the local council staffs hang around the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, where unconfirmed sources told BusinessDay they also receive their salaries from the location.

Some of the council staff told BusinessDay they are afraid of going to the council headquarters for fear of being hounded by the reinstated LG chairmen, who use security men to protect their stay at the council headquarters.

http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/111-politics/42667-okorocha-sacks-imo-local-council-administrations