A group of opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives, known as the G60, has raised the alarm over alleged move by Pro-Wike former local government council chairmen in Rivers Sstes to freeze the LG allocations with exparte order.
The lawmakers, who made this known in a statement signed by their spokesperson, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, said that the they received credible intelligence that some of the former local government chairmen whose tenure expired recently and their financiers were allegedly looking for a Federal High Court to give them an injunction that will seize the monthly allocations of the local governments because of their failed attempt to hang on to power after their tenure expiration.
They, therefore, called on the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and Judges of State High Courts to be very careful and put their divisions on alert, so they won’t be used to issue exparte orders to people who are no longer elected local government chairmen.
The lawmakers said, “We received credible intelligence that some of the former local government chairmen that their tenure expired in Rivers and their financiers are looking for a federal high court to give them an injunction that will seize the allocation of the local government because of their failed attempt to hang on to power after their tenure expired. I want to use this opportunity to call on the Chief Judge of the Federal high court and judges of state high court, you never can tell they can go to Zamfara or ogoja or anywhere, I want to call on them to be very careful and put their divisions on alert, so they won’t be used to issue exparte applications to people who are no longer elected local government chairmen.
“There’s nothing like tenure extension in a democratic setting, it’s like a coup taking over constitutional governance. So we want to alert the general public that there’s move to pick exparte applications by these former local governments chairmen that their tenure has expired to seize the allocation of the local government so that workers and development in rural areas will suffer.”
[Leadership]