There are strong indications that local Government Chairmen and Councilors sacked by Governor Rochas Okorocha in 2011 may not be recalled by the incoming administration of Hon Emeka Ihedioha in Imo State.
The Council bosses had won election to head the Local Governments in August 2010 during Ikedi Ohakim administration but were sacked by Governor Rochas Okorocha in June 2011.
Since then, it has been a cat and mouse battle between the Council Chairmen mainly of PDP extraction and the Okorocha government which had migrated from the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA in 2011 to the All Progressive Congress, APC in 2014.
In Nigeria, State Governors maintain a stronghold on the local governments by running illegal Transition or Caretaker Committees made up of party loyalists of the Governor.Funds acruable to the Councils are also controlled by the Governors.
The sacked Council Chairmen however gave Okorocha a fight and were reportedly restored by the Courts which Okorocha’s action as a nullity.
Their attempts to re take the Council’s based on the Court order met a brickwall as the Okorocha Government stood it’s ground and shoved them aside.
In what analysts had described as an act amounting to disregard to the law by the Okorocha government, political pundits had argued then the sack of the Chairmen was legally wrong but politically right in a political system where State Governors not just take control of local Government funds but appoint party men as part of a ploy to maintain grip on the grassroots.
However, the return of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to power in Imo State heralded with the election of Hon.Emeka Ihedioha as Governor elect, may have raised hopes for the Chairmen that they would return to their various seats across the 27 local governments in the State.
Feelers emerged on Monday that the Chairmen and Councilors visited the Governor elect where they narrated their ordeal and pushed for their reinstatement when Ihedioha assumes office on May 29.
Sources at the meeting held at the Mbutu, Aboh Mbaise country home of the Governor elect disclosed that the Governor elect was not forthcoming on the matter but vowed to restore the local Government system in Imo State by granting it autonomy which has been in shambles in the last eight years.
The non functionality of the Local Governments in Imo State had been ascribed as one of the major reasons development was unable to get to the grassroots since Okorocha assumed office in 2011.
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