A member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Ikenga Ugochinyere, has said that awaited Supreme Court judgement on local government autonomy will not affect the tenure expiration of local government chairmen in Rivers State on Monday.
Ugochinyere, who made this known on Friday, said that the tenure of Rivers State local government chairmen expires in a few days and no court can give them tenure elongation because it’s against the law and a treasonous act.
The lawmaker, a foremost constitutional lawyer, hailed Governor Similanayi Fubara for displaying uncommon democratic character by allowing the council chairmen to finish their three-year tenure without disruption despite the attacks.
Ugochinyere urged the outgoing chairmen to prepare their handover notes ahead of tenure expiration, adding that after Monday anyone found parading himself as a council chairman should be arrested.
Ugochinyere said: “The tenure of the present local government chairmen in Rivers State is ending in a few days, and Governor Fubara has allowed the local government system function democratically.
“He didn’t dissolve them. Even when he had issues with his predecessor, he allowed them to continue in office until the expiration of their tenure, which will come on the 17th of June. So whatever the Supreme Court is going to rule or not has nothing to do with their stay in office.
“If people are thinking that whatever the Supreme Court rules that you as a local government chairman that your tenure has democratically ended can now continue in office because of an extension by lawmakers who have been sacked and then went to a two bedroom apartment in Emoha and amended the local government law and say that local government chairmen, that their tenure is going to democratically expire, can continue their stay in office? That’s not democracy.
”If you’re elected you’re elected for a timeline and that timeline ends soon and at the end of that they will able to conduct a fresh local government election. It has nothing to do with the unrealistic quest by a group of outgoing local government chairmen that their tenure is expiring to now say that whatever the Supreme Court rules they will remain in office.
“The judgement of the Supreme Court is about the autonomy of the local government and not about outgoing chairmen who want to enjoy tenure elongation. There will be no tenure elongation in Rivers State. The issue before the apex court is about autonomy of the local government.
“Who are the ones who said they have amended the law? People that were sacked, people that are no longer lawmakers, people that their seat have been declared vacant, people that committed political stupidity when they left their own political party when there was no issue, swore to affidavit before the federal high court that they’ve left PDP as of 11 December 2023, now struggling to come back, they forgot when they were saying on your man we shall stand? Or when the Speaker read their decampment letter on the floor, they forgot about that?
“Now they’re running around looking for where they can obtain court order to say that they are now lawmakers. If they want to be lawmakers, when INEC conducts by-election they should contest again, that’s the end of the story. So whatever is the judgement of the Supreme Court has nothing to do the expiration of tenure of the local government chairmen, it’s about local government autonomy. So that’s the end of the road for them.”
