The Rivers government has told the elected officials of the local government areas of the state to prepare to vacate their offices on July 17, saying their tenures cannot be extended by any retrospective law of the state House of Assembly. The government also cleared the allegations by the chairmen that it withheld the salaries and entitlements of the Emohua local government area, explaining that it was a decision of the state’s Local Government Service Commission to save the dignity and rights of local council’s employees......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
Responding to the allegations of the Rivers State Chapter of the Association of Local Government Areas of Nigeria (ALGON), the Commissioner for Information, Warisenibo Joe Johnson, said the aggrieved chairmen were simply pursuing a mirage.
He said the governor was not interested in local government funds but explained that only Emohua Local Government Area’s salaries were withheld by the state’s Local Government Service Commission.
Johnson further noted that three local government areas of Emohua, Ahoada East, and Ikwerre stepped beyond their constitutional boundaries by sacking some members of staff of their councils.
He said whereas two others of Ikwerre and Ahoada East later obeyed the directives of the service commission and retraced their steps, the Emohua council refused to obey the directive.
He said:
“They mentioned only Emohua. Three local government areas, Emohua, Ahoada East, and Ikwerre local government areas were involved in an act beyond their constitutional powers. “Local government chairmen have no right to sack any local government staff. The only body vested with that responsibility is the local government service commission. The three local government areas ran into murky waters.
“But the Ahoada East and Ikwerre Local councils obeyed the directives of the local government service commission but Emohua refused to do so and the commission is bent on doing the right thing.
That is why the money of Emohua is withheld. Nobody is holding their money. The governor is not interested in their money”. On the chairmen’s threat to continue in office beyond their elected tenure of three years following the recent amendment of the state’s Local government law by the House of Assembly, Johnson described the position of the councils’ chairmen as baseless.
He said the country’s Constitution as amended prohibits retrospective laws adding that the present elected officials of the councils would not benefit from any tenure extension law made after they had been elected to serve for only three years.
Johnson said: “There is a prohibition on retrospective law. No law is made in retrospect. So, if a council chairman’s tenure which the law that brought them in clearly stated they would do three years, there is no law that can be made by any assembly that can override the provision of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on retrospective law.
“The local government will naturally sound the way they are sounding because there is something for them to benefit. What they are pursuing is a smokescreen, a fluke, and a mirage. It has no basis in law. Too many wrongs can never make one right.
“It is a settled law that their tenure will expire on the 17th of June and by the 18th of June they will no longer be eligible to be called chairmen. It means their responsibilities have turned to what is called functus Officio. They should stop deceiving Rivers people”.
Johnson further said that the governor’s statement on the position of law describing the assembly members as non-existent was not an impeachable offence.
He said: “What the governor said is hinged in the law in Section 109 of our constitution that those people have ceased to exist. Whatever he said about two days ago is hinged on the law, that if an assemblyman defects from his party to another party, he shall lose his seat. “When the law uses ‘shall’ it means that it is a must.
The matters are before the judiciary. Many people had gone to court about it and I will expect that they should have played low to know the issues before beginning to think of impeachment.
“In any case, the law also listed the offences that could be committed by a governor before you start impeachment. That the governor made a statement that he did not recognize them is not tantamount to an impeachable offence. If it is let’s see where freedom of expression has turned to an offence.”
