Ex-Rivers LG chairmen threaten showdown with Fubara

Former local government chairmen in Rivers State have threatened to resume office in the councils if Governor Siminalayi Fubara refuses to obey the recent Supreme Court judgement outlawing the use of caretaker committees to run council affairs.

The former chairmen loyal to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, made the threat during a news briefing in Port Harcourt on Friday.

The former chairman of Emohua LGA, Dr Chidi Lloyd, said they had been patient while expecting Fubara to comply with the court judgment. However, he has continued to work with the Caretaker Committee members in the 23 LG councils of the state.

Dr Lloyd alleged that the governor’s actions are capable of causing a breach of the peace in the state and called on the police authority at the national level to take necessary actions to stop the activities of Fubara’s CTC chairmen.

He stated, “The essence of this conference is to say that we are not cowards, if this continues we will go back to our local government and force ourselves into the councils.

“We have kept quiet because of the kind of leader we have who continues from time to time to preach the path of peace. We are still the same ones that elected him into office as governor when his local government produced less than 5000 votes.

“If this continues, we will exacerbate the already exacerbated situation, we are not cowards. We are calling on the police to act fast. The State House of Assembly had written to the Inspector General of Police and also resolved on the floor of the House on the police. We do not know why the police in Rivers are foot-dragging and saying that things are done properly.”

Dr Lloyd warned the CTC chairmen to steer clear from their project sites, saying, “Anybody who deals with them does so at his or her detriment. Any further impersonation, we will all hit the field, then in law, we will now know what the Supreme Court has said.”

Also speaking, the immediate past chairman of Ahoada West LGA, Hope Ikriko, said the governor who by law was vested with the power to maintain law and order had failed in that regard.

Ikiro said, “We are not even saying we all are agitated, the people are agitated. They call us daily and we are the voice of the voiceless. That is why we are telling the government to work timely.

“Our governor doesn’t seem to be interested in peace. They are going about sealing off properties belonging to perceived enemies. We are not afraid of them, but they should make sure there is peace and order in the state. As the governor is sealing properties, we will also visit his properties in the old GRA.”

On his part, the former Chairman of Port Harcourt City Local Government and immediate past Chairman of ALGON in the state, Allwell Ihunda, said the briefing was to draw the attention of President Bola Tinubu, the National Assembly, the judiciary, security agencies, and Rivers people to what he termed “crass contempt of judgements of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court delivered on July 4, 2024 and July 11, 2024, respectively”.

Ihunda recalled that the supreme court ruling of July 11, 2024, which affirmed the autonomy of the LGA across the country, abolished the powers of the State Governors to set up caretaker committees in to govern the Local Government Councils in Nigeria as enshrined by section 7(1) of the 1999 constitution.

Ihunda said while other state governors had allegedly started obeying the order of the court to step down caretaker committees across the nation, ‘the situation in Rivers State is different.

“In Rivers State, the State Government is busy promoting these illegal caretaker committees by encouraging the illegal caretaker committee chairmen and members to parade themselves as head of the Local Government Administration in the 23 Local Government Areas,” he said,

The According reports that the Rivers Police Command had taken over the 23 LGA headquarters in the wake of the crisis over the tenure of the LG chairmen, even as the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, later insisted that the police will continue to occupy the councils until a court of competent jurisdiction rules on the matter.