A pre-colonial nationalist, Pa Conleth Omeka, says he would lead a statewide protest if Governor Rochas Okorocha fails to conduct council election in two months’ time.

The visually impaired nonagenarian said there was no need for general elections in the state if, for seven years, Okorocha has “vehemently refused” to conduct LGA elections.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Pa Omeka, who is the national coordinator of Nigeria Patriots Pioneers Liberation Movement, said the absence of democratically elected chairmen and councils was “spreading hunger and poverty in Imo State.”

Omeka said, “We sincerely call on President Muhammadu Buhari and National Assembly to take urgent steps to review and amend the section of the Constitution that empowers governors to dissolve and run affairs of the councils as their personal empire and to grant the 774 local government areas full autonomy.”

He condemned Okorocha for “arbitrarily sacking a duly elected administration” in 2011 and also for having failed since then to conduct LGA elections to replace the sacked chairmen and councilors.

Pa Omenka, who said he was part of the 1978 Constitution drafting committee, urged members of Imo State House of Assembly to check what he called “excesses of the governor.”

“We advise the Imo State House of Assembly to take urgent and necessary steps to compel the governor to conduct council elections in the state on or before the middle of June, 2018.

“I am 90 years old, blind; and I was a front line political activist in the first and second republics.

“We were detained during the agitation for the independence of Nigeria. I am pained by what this generation is going through.

“I shall lead a statewide protest if the governor fails to conduct LGA election in May this year.” – Punch

– Apr. 3, 2018 @ 13:55 GMT

AE