- Asks police, DSS, NSCDC to enforce directive
- Ousted Rivers LG chairmen accuse govt of disobeying court judgments, orders
A fresh court order has been issued by the Rivers State High Court preventing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from going ahead with its planned congresses in the state.
The court halted the congresses planned by the party to hold in the wards, 23 local government areas and the state on July 27, August 10 and August 31.
The new order dated July 25 was, among series of other injunctions, issued by Justice CN Wali in a suit marked PHC/2400/CS/2024 filed by 21 members of the PDP in Rivers State.
Named as first, second and third sets of defendants in the matter were the PDP; National Chairman, Amb. Iliya Damagum; party’s National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu; National Organising Secretary, Umar Nature and the party’s National Financial Secretary, Daniel Woyegikuro.
Others were Aaron Chukwuemeka; Dr. Benibo George; Solomon Ogbonna; Lenebari Inaania; Enia Harris; ThankGod Owhorji; Inspector-General of Police; Commissioner of Police, Rivers State; Director-General, State Security Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The judge gave the order after hearing a motion ex-parte file by the claimants/applicants.
The court said: “An order of interim injunction is hereby made restraining the 1st, 2nd and 3rd sets of defendants, their agents, servants, privies and hirelings from gathering in the 319 wards of the 23 local government areas in Rivers in howsoever and whatsoever manner for the purpose of conducting, and/or from conducting the PDP ward, local government or state congresses in Rivers State on the 27th July, 10th August and or 31st August 2024 respectively,
“Or on any other date and place in Rivers State or Nigeria or anywhere and/or from conducting any election of the PDP ad-hoc delegates at any forum wheresover or howsoever pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction already filed herein.”
The court further directed the police, DSS and NSCDC to enforce its orders by preventing the PDP and its agents from holding the ward, local government and state congresses in the state or anywhere else pending the determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
The court said: “It is further ordered that the motion on notice and the originating summons including this order be served on the respondent forthwith by substituted means, by publication in any national newspaper that is widely read in Rivers State.
“It is further ordered that the applicants are to pay damages to the respondents as will be assessed should this application be found to be frivolous”.
The court adjourned the case to August 1st, 2024 for motion on notice.
Ousted Rivers LG chairmen accuse govt of disobeying court judgments, orders
THE tension that is brewing in Rivers State escalated further yesterday as the ousted local government chairmen, who are still battling for tenure elongation, accused the state government of flagrantly disobeying court orders, including those of the Supreme Court.
The removed chairmen, who spoke to reporters under the auspices of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers chapter, said the government had refused to dissolve the local government caretaker committees and their chairmen despite the recent Supreme Court judgment.
Reading their position, the chairman of the group, Allwell Ihunda, urged President Bola Tinubu, the National Assembly, the judiciary and the security agencies to pay attention to what they described as the ongoing abuse of power and contempt of court that is ongoing in the state.
He particularly said the state government had continued to engage in persistent illegality and crass contempt of judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court delivered on the 4th of July 2024 and July 2024 respectively.
He said: “We are taken aback and saddened by the blunt inclination and rebellious stance of the Governor of Rivers State against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the explicit judgment of the highest courts in Nigeria.
“We believe that it is a major paradox and an aberration for the governor to be the major breaker of the laws of our land. The socio-economic and political consequences of such executive lawlessness are dangerous.
“We make these bold assertions without fear of contradiction and in the overriding long run interest of peace in our dear state.”
Ihunda said going by the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule & 24 others Vs Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo & 5 others, the court held that section 272 (3) of the 1999 Constitution vests on the Federal High Court the power to determine whether the seat of a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly had become vacant or not.
He also recalled that in January, the Federal High Court presided over by Hon. Justice Omotosho clearly nullified all acts of the purported four-man assembly led by Edison Ehie, including Victor Oko Jumbo, and affirmed Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule as the only Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Ihunda, the ousted Chairman of Port Harcourt City, further said that the Court of Appeal in its recent decision also voided all actions earlier taken by Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo before and during the pendency of the matter before the state High Court.
He said such actions of the Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo led Rivers State House of Assembly included the screening and confirmation of commissioners and caretaker committee members for the 23 local government areas in Rivers.
He said: “The governor of Rivers State has intentionally disobeyed this judgment. You all are aware of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Attorney General of the Federation Vs the 36 State Governors delivered on the 11th of July 2024, which legalised and affirmed the autonomy of the 774 local government areas in consonance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
“Among several orders, the Apex Court abolished the powers of the state governors to set up caretaker committees in any guise to govern the local government councils in Nigeria as enshrined in section 7(1) of the 1999 constitution. This order also extricated the local government councils from the suffocating grip of the various state governments.
“In other words, by this judgment, the Local Government Areas are no more departments of the state governments.
“Be that as it may, in sharp contrast to the obvious implications of this historic judgment, which has prompted many state governors to step down caretaker committees across the nation, the situation in Rivers State is totally different.
“Ours is another example of flagrant disobedience of the Supreme Court judgment. What we are seeing is repugnant to the provisions of the Constitution.
“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 heads of the local government administration in the 23 local government areas.”
Ihunda listed the actions of the caretaker committee chairmen, saying they were involved in a dubious quest to generate internal revenue thereby ravaging the pockets of the citizenry by collecting all sorts of illegal revenue from the unsuspecting public.
He said they were also threatening to dethrone traditional rulers if they failed to subordinate their stools to their whims and caprices.
Ihunda said they had lavished about N40 billion confiscated from the local government councils’ accounts, being moneys due to the councils between April 2024 and June 2024.
He said: “It is sad that this enormous financial resource has been squandered on all sorts of frivolous activities. What a waste!
“To impose themselves without any atom of legitimacy, these illegal caretaker committees are relying on threats to perceived opponents to perpetuate themselves in power in the various local government councils.
“This is increasingly generating tension among competing youth groups in the communities in the state.
“Unfortunately, Governor Sim is also adopting the same ugly tactic of using the apparatus of state power to silence perceived opponents.
“Only recently, he is threatening perceived opponents with sealing their properties, relying on trumped-up charges.
“The illegal caretaker committee chairmen in some local government areas are violently stopping communal projects promoted by the traditional heads of their respective communities and dictating where and what to build on community lands.
“Acts of this nature are already fuelling tension and threatening the peace and sanity of the communities in the local government areas.
“These illegal caretaker committee chairmen and members are busy on a daily basis convoking politically motivated stakeholders’ meeting in the capacity as the administrative heads of the local government areas to legitimise their fraudulent status in the local government areas.”
Ihunda said such meetings were brewing tension and mutual suspicion among members of the communities, adding that the unfavourable environment existed because large sections of the communities questioned the legal basis for the existence of the caretaker committees as heads of their local government areas.
He said: “The Rivers State House of Assembly, in order to be thorough in ensuring stark conformity of the Rivers State Local Government Laws to the Nigerian constitution as amended, had altered the relevant sections of the Rivers State Local Government Law which made provisions for the establishment of the caretaker committees.
“This bold amendment was carried out even before the recent pronouncement of the Supreme Court.
“Instead of obeying this law, the Rivers State governor is doing everything in his power to delegitimise the existence of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
“He is still doing so even though the Court of Appeal has declared Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule as the bona fide speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. This is a direct attempt to create lawlessness in the state and dysfunctionality of the local government system in Rivers State.
“The extent to which the governor of Rivers State is disobeying court orders and even tagging decisions of superior judicial bodies as unconstitutional is alarming. To this end, we call on the law enforcement agencies to swing into action and salvage the situation, lest the acts of the Governor and threats of the caretaker committee chairmen tear the state apart.
“The judgment of the Supreme Court is law. It must be obeyed by all and must be enforced timeously. We believe in the power and ability of the Police and the DSS.
“All defaulters of our laws should be brought to book as timely as possible as not to do so will result to citizens sourcing and settling for self help, which would most likely degenerate into chaotic retaliations from interested parties, thus further escalating the already existing tension and threat to the law and order in Rivers State.”
It was, however, observed that all the judgments had continued to elicit different interpretations from the two warring political camps.
The ousted local government chairmen and their supporters have continued to kick against continued operations of caretaker committee chairmen in the 23 local government areas in spite of the Supreme Court judgment.
Recently, the Speaker Martins Amaewhule-led House of Assembly asked the police and other security agencies to arrest the caretaker committee chairmen and withdraw personnel attached to them for violating the judgment of the apex court.
On Wednesday, there were violent clashes between the supporters of the caretaker committee chairmen and those of the ousted elected chairmen over programmes designed to empower residents at the grassroots, especially in Ikwerre and Obio-Akpor local government councils.
The caretaker committee chairman of Obio-Akpor, Chijioke Ihunwo, had accused Amaewhule of sending his thugs to disrupt the programme and unleash violence on residents, who came out to benefit from it.
He called on President Tinubu and the Inspector-General of Police to intervene and call the former chairmen and their supporters to order.
Caretaker committee chairs accuse former chairmen of heightening tension
In their reaction yesterday, the caretaker committee chairmen, who spoke under the auspices of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers State Chapter, accused the former local government chairmen of trying to cause anarchy and engineer a climate of lawlessness in the state.
Speaking on their behalf, the Caretaker Committee Mayor of Port Harcourt City Local Government Council, Prince Ichemati Ezebunwo, condemned the rising attacks on CTC chairmen and supporters of the State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara.
They warned those involved in perpetrating acts of violence and intimidation in the state to desist forthwith and toe the path of peace, saying that their desperation was becoming unacceptable to the generality of Rivers people.
They said: “We recall that earlier today, the immediate past local government chairmen made inciting statements bordering on claims to perpetuating themselves in office they had constitutionally ceased to occupy at the effluxion of time on June 17, 2024.
“We hereby warn these impostors to desist forthwith and also call the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu to call them (immediate past LG chairmen) to order.”
The caretaker chairmen urged the police to be professional, apolitical and neutral in the discharge of their duties, and avoid compromising themselves by aligning with some impostors and desperate politicians to destabilise the state.
They also condemned, in strong terms, the dastardly attacks on their members in Ikwerre and Obio/Akpor local government areas, where they alleged that the immediate past chairmen and a former lawmaker led armed thugs to inflict deadly harm on their members and vulnerable people in the communities.
They specifically mentioned the incidents in Omerelu in Ikwerre Local Government Area, and Eliozu in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, where they said pregnant women, vulnerable children and people with disabilities were ferociously attacked, tear-gassed and injured while vehicles and valuable medical consumables and hospital equipment were damaged.
They said that it was callous for the past local government chairmen to hire thugs and mindless policemen to attack law-abiding people, who were reportedly responding to a key Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda programme aimed at providing healthcare services to the people at the grassroots.
They wondered why any politician and former elected public office holder would disrupt a Federal Government-sponsored primary healthcare programme designed to improve the health status of rural dwellers, who they had claimed to serve.
They warned that the police must not deliberately create an atmosphere of crisis by openly or clandestinely showing support for and protection to the immediate past chairmen.
They also called on the Inspector General of Police, and the Commissioner for Police, to respect the will and the fundamental rights of the people at the LGAs by allowing legitimate workers at the local governments unfettered access to their offices to perform their lawful duties unhindered.
They argued that by denying the local government workers access to their offices to carry out their legitimate duties, the police were deliberately allowing themselves to be used to deny the people at the grassroots the opportunity to enjoy the dividends of democracy and good governance.
They also dissociated themselves from the planned nationwide protest scheduled for August 1 across the country, saying that they were totally against the planned protest because it was capable of being hijacked by hoodlums to loot and destroy valuable properties and cause breakdown of law and order.
Ezebunwo said that the state had been peaceful and that it was unnecessary to allow agents of destabilisation to plunge it into instability, anarchy and chaos with needless protest and disorganised demonstrations.
Ezebunwo also reiterated the unalloyed support and commitment of the members to the implementation of the key objectives of Mr President’s policies and programmes as enunciated in the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Federal Government.
He said: “Sequel to the Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting of June, 2024, where intense deliberations were held and resolutions reached on measures to adopt in improving the lives of our people at the grassroots, and the swift release of allocations due the local government councils, we, the members of ALGON, Rivers State Chapter, state that “we thank Mr President, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the timely and unhindered release of allocations for the various local government councils.
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“We want to thank our peace-loving Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, who has instructed us to remain peaceful in the face of unwarranted provocation, and to dispense the local government funds in line with the local government laws for the overall benefit of our people.
“ALGON, Rivers State, dissociates itself from the planned protest from August 1, 2024, by faceless individuals against the government and policies of President Tinubu.
“We state categorically that we are committed to cascading the key objectives of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President in our various local government areas.
“We hereby call on the people to discountenance any planned protest as measures are being put in place to cushion the effects of the economic situation in the country today”.
[TheNation]
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