…Ogu/Bolo, Delga Chairmen To Be Impeached
…Billions of Naira Missing In LGAs
…Ghost Workers Take Over Councils
Crisis rocks some of the Local Government Councils in Rivers State following the defection of their council chairmen to All Progressives Congress (APC). Shortly after Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi dumped the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDPD) for the opposition APC, so many of his political associates and loyalists also toed the same line of action.
All the twenty-three (23) LGA chairmen, except Prince Hon. Timothy Nsirim of Obio/Akpor Council threw their weight behind the Governor’s decision to move to the APC.
Penultimate week, immediately after the inauguration of the Grassroot Development Initiative (GDI) at Ogu/Bolo, the council chairman, Mrs. Maureen Tamuno while addressing newsmen declared that, her council would continue to stand behind the Governor and that the Ogu/Bolo GDI rented crowd from other LGAs to organize its inauguration/thanksgiving at Ogu.
The chairman’s statement landed her in a big trouble as the good people of the area held her hostage last week and demanded for apology that her statement was not true. It took security officers stationed in the area over three (3) hours to plead with the youths to release Mrs. Tamuno. The chairman begged the people that she would reverse the negative utterances she had made against the GDI and the ruling party as soon as she is off the hook. In this premise Mrs. Tamuno was released.
Meanwhile she is now entangled in a fresh crisis as the councilors in the area have threatening to serve her an impeachment notice if she continues to drag the Ogu/Bolo LGA to opposition. Out of the twelve (12) councilors in the area seven (7) are not happy with Mrs. Tamuno the way and the manner in which she is handling the affairs of the council, therefore there is need for her to be impeached. “Ogu/Bolo is a PDP LGA, I see no reason why the chairman, Dame Maureen Tamuno is identifying with a party (APC) that cannot go far,” one of the serving councilors in the area told our political correspondent.
The councilor continued by saying that, “Maureen Tamuno should not do anything that will bring political chaos in the Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area.”
Her counterpart in the Degema Local Government Area, Alhaji Daddy Ibigoni Pokima is facing similar problem as some of the councilors in the LGA met in Port Harcourt, last Thursday. Their discussions and deliberation were centred on the impeachment of the council boss. They accused the chairman of planning to drag the entire LGA to APC.
According to the councilors there is no day they sat down and deliberated and resolved that they are all cross carpeting to APC, which they described a “dead party”.
The councilors advised the council chairman to reverse the statement he had made in the Government House that, Degema is for APC or to face impeachment “We are Kalabari people. We are not cowards. The chairman should consult us before taking any decision. We are not kids. He cannot just go to the Government House and told the Governor that the LGA is following him to the APC.
“That is nonsense, a councilor said. The councilor lampooned Alhaji Pokima for performing below the expectation of the masses, alleging that the council chairman does not have the interest of the people at heart.
In another development, information reaching our crime desk had it that billions of naira in some councils’ treasuries in Rivers State have disappeared. Sources have it that, a lot of chairmen are now on looting spree, following the uncertain political situation in the state.
The council chairmen do not know the date when Governor Amaechi may dissolve the LGAs. Due to this uncleared circumstances of the administration of the Local Government affairs, some LGA chairmen are begin to siphon funds meant for the development of their respective councils to their personal bank accounts. Various projects have been stalled across the twenty-three (23) LGAs.
In Degema, Omuma, Etche, Ogu/Bolo, Asari-Toru, Phalga amongst others, a lot of projects are already being abandoned. Sources further informed this weekly that contractors handling some major community projects have abandoned sites in Andoni, Bonny and Opobo/Nkoro.
In the same vein, knowledgeable sources told this publication that the conclusion of the recent Staff Auditing Verification Exercise in the LGAs revealed that over thirty (30) thousand ghost workers exist in the various councils.
Most of the ghost workers as we were rightly informed are relations to council chairmen whose names are slotted into the payment voucher on monthly basis, as a way of compensation.
The staff auditing and verification committee fished out several ghost workers in Asalga, Ahoada-West, Oyigbo, Eleme, Khana, and Tai. According to our sources affected Rivers LGAs are on monthly basis spending millions of naira on ghost workers.
A political analyst who spoke with our correspondent called on the relevant authorities to ensure that the chairmen of the affected LGAs should be made to face the wrath of law for harbouring ghost workers in the councils’ payroll. ###
