COUNCILLORS and the 27 chairmen of the 27 Local Government Areas of Imo State, on Monday, blocked the entrance to state House of Assembly complex located in new Owerri in protest over the rumoured dissolution of the LG administrations in the state.

They had besieged the Assembly complex over the rumour that the outgoing lawmakers would dissolve the elected LGA administration during plenary on Monday.

The chairman of the Association of Imo State Elected Councillors Forum, Godwin Nwankwo, who addressed journalists at the gate of the Assembly complex, said that they heard a rumour that the state lawmakers want to dissolve their tenure on Monday.

He said, “We are here to be part of the plenary today and to remind our senior colleagues that the LGA administration will expire in 2021. We were only elected in 2018 for a three-year tenure. The state lawmakers can’t approbate and reprobate at the same time.”

“They don’t have the legal right to dissolve a duly elected LGA administration. Several Supreme Court judgments have confirmed that. We can’t be dissolved because we were democratically elected and we are not even up to one year in office. Our tenure will run for three years.”

They later had an altercation with security operatives stationed at the entrance of the complex, who prevented them from gaining access to the complex.

The Speaker, Chinedu Offor, who spoke to newsmen on the phone could neither confirm nor deny the rumour.

He said, “Are they spirits? How did they know that we want to dissolve them? They should wait until we finish today’s plenary to know if we will dissolve them or not.”

As of the time of filing this report, the lawmakers were still in an executive session in preparation for the day’s plenary. – Punch

– June 3, 2019 @ 15:25 GMT |