What is happening in Oyigbo LGA of Rivers State presently is not in any way different from what happened in Obio/Akpor LGA, the largest LGA of the state, where a re-run election was held last year and an Action Congress of Nigeria party candidate from Rumuomasi Community of Obio/Akpor emerged as the winner.
Immediately after the election, the councilor elect was sworn-in to office by the council boss, Hon. Prince Timothy Nsirim and the councilor has been representing his people until their recent suspension by the Rivers State House of Assembly.
One would wonder why the case has been different in Oyigbo LGA, where a councillorship candidate from ward 8, who went to the tribunal for redress after the local government election that was held years back, gave him judgment for the subsequent re-run of 26th February, 2013 and 16th March, 2013 which the councilor elect, Hon. Sunny Chinwuba Williams won.
Certificate of return was said to have been issued to Hon. Sunny by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) after the election and the subsequent letter from the office of the council secretary, requesting Hon. Sunny Chinwuba to come to the council headquarters for his official swearing in on the 2nd of May, 2013, which did not hold.
All attempts by media men to reach the council chairman, Hon. Felix Nweke on the news that he has briefed the APGA councilor on an injunction that has restrained him from swearing in the councilor elect, that morning proved abortive.
The armed Mobil Police men attached to the chairman’s office never allowed journalists passage to see him.
Meanwhile, the press secretary to the chairman, Mr. Bobby Oforji, said, “you saw me when I was arranging the hall and the address system. My chairman was ready for the swearing-in, only for a lawyer to come in this morning with an injunction from some stakeholders in Oyigbo, asking the chairman not to swear-in the councilor elect.”
At the Rivers State judiciary Oyigbo Court complex, Kom-Kom, Barr. Joseph Elleh counsel to Sunny Williams said: “we were invited by the LGA council, Oyigbo precisely for the swearing-in ceremony of Sunny Williams. We thought for the first time that they were ready to do the right thing which is deserving in a democratic system, because even when you want to challenge your neighbour’s election, there is a rule that the law permits no absolute vacuum”.
“For example, you can’t just say that the president of Nigeria will not be there. If he is not there somebody will be seating in that seat, holding in the capacity of vice president or somebody holding in at that particular point and time vacuum is not allowed.
“In ward 8 now, they are saying there should be a vacuum, what is the reason? Because the man called Sunny C. Williams had won that election. I know that in our society even when you want to challenge somebody’s election, the person will take seat the moment he has been declared a winner.”
“You can continue challenging it until the court now declares the seat vacant. It is not something that one can bring any sheet of paper in the name of court process to truncate a democratic system. It is appalling and unbecoming in Oyigbo LGA.
Barr. Elleh added that he was restrained from accompanying his client, Sunny to see the council chairman, Hon. Felix where he briefed his client of the court order that restrained him from swearing in his client. He claimed there was no court order.
In an interview with journalists Williams said.
“Last week Thursday being the 23rd of April, the Oyigbo council secretary called me and issued me a letter titled swearing-in on the 2nd of May. As you can see all the units, and all the 7 communities in Oyigbo mobilized themselves to the council this morning for the swearing-in”.
“We have been here since 8 O’clock till now, the local government chairman just called me and I went with my legal adviser. He now told me that there was a court order restraining him from swearing me in, my counsel now asked to show him a copy of the court order, he could not be able to provide one, my lawyer now asked him to produce the suit number, which court or magistrate court that restrained him from not swearing me in? He said that what he knows is that there is court order.
“I see it that what he meant is that he is above the law, that he can invite us at any time he likes because is above the law.
Last time when he addressed me, he said, he was told not to swear me in because I am an opposition party that was what he said.
With this thing that he performed today it means that he is still standing his ground that the governor told him not to swear me in and not any court order.”
The councilor elect added that the people of ward 8 that came to be part of the ceremony were embarrassed having closed their shops and businesses for the day to celebrate with him. He promised to continue with a non violent measure, until his mandate is reclaimed. ###
