Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as Governor of Rivers State, swore me in as Executive Chairman of Degema Local Government Council. In the hallowed Executive Council chamber of Government House, Port Harcourt, the same official Oaths were administered on my colleagues from 21 other LGAs.
We were products of an election that held validly in full compliance with the laws of the land and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We had taken up work at our duty posts to serve Rivers people in our respective LGAs as Rivers sons and a daughter for a period of three years in accordance with the provisions of the Rivers State Local Government Law No. 2 of 2012. For the avoidance of doubt, the said elections were conducted under the law, to wit: The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (Amendment No. 2) Law No. 3 of 2011 and by the valid constitutional authority i.e. the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission under the distinguished chairmanship of Prof Augustine Ahiauzu, one of Nigeria’s foremost management experts, a Rivers man of unimpeachable character and pedigree; one whose reign as Vice Chancellor of the erstwhile Rivers State University of Science and Technology witnessed uncommon landmarks in the advancement of learning, academic conquest and development in ways that are unparalleled till date.
As part of our first official assignments upon assumption of office, we inaugurated our deputies (Vice Chairmen) and proclaimed the parliaments (the legislative arm of the Councils) as required by law. That done, the business of administering the Councils for the peace, progress and benefit of Rivers people at the grassroots was well underway. But men…mere mortals…men filled with lust for political power and nothing else reached for their dirty knives and stabbed the soul of the moment.
Three years down the road, the aggressors whose strength in the law/judicial triumph and politics is not legal erudition/scholarship and political suaveness of any sorts but unbridled judicial corruption, mindless violence and brigandage are the only victors. We have trodden the courtrooms these three years and whereas they have cornered the Council accounts to build their wealth bases, these politicians who are wild about transient power have been unable to prove their claim that the holding of the local government elections of May 23rd 2015 by the RSIEC is illegal, unconstitutional and unlawful. At some point, these men took out pages on national dailies to call us names because we demanded for JUSTICE. One of the most regrettable and ridiculous levels to which these men to who politics is everything but a call to service to the people have reduced our civilisation as Rivers people is that petition to the Chairman of the National Judicial Council captioned, “RE: SUIT NUMBER FHC/PH/CS/84/2015 (PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY v. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION AND 4 OTHERS) and published in THIS DAY newspaper of Friday, June 26, 2015 at pages E – G. Endorsed by my good friend, Erastus Awortu, Esq as Legal Assistant to the Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Rivers State, not only were we described as “a band of miscreants parading as Local Government Chairmen and Members of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Rivers State Chapter”, the said publication which was a Rejoinder to our petition against Justice Lambo Akanbi of the Federal High Court and published in The Nation newspaper of Friday, June 19, 2015, practically portrayed our dear Rivers State in the worst of lights.
We have today crossed the threshold of three years since we took the Oath of Office and Oath of Allegiance to the Federal Republic. The Judge who nullified the election that brought us to office no longer sits on that exalted judicial throne whereupon he did the bidding of the PDP on July 9, 2015 at the recommendation of the National Judicial Council and approval by Mr. President. I and my learned brother, Prince Reginald Ukwuoma, who the desperate petitioners recommended at Paragraphs 16 and 31 of their complaint should be referred to the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association “to substantiate their claims or face the necessary disciplinary actions” still have our heads hanging above our shoulders! The PDP and the Government of Rivers State have consistently failed to produce the Order of Court wherein the said prohibition of Prof Ahiauzu’s team from holding the 2015 elections was made. Instead, these men who pride themselves as masters of judicial manoeuvre have progressed in default with all sorts of frivolous Motions before the appellate courts!
We have lost my Vice Chairman and Leader of the Asari Toru Legislative Council to the PDP and two or three others to death in these past three years. Councillor, Ward 1 in Abua/Odual was murdered on his way home from an APC function in Port Harcourt while Councillor, Ward 13 Obio/Akpor passed due to natural causes. On the whole and on our part, it has been a study in diligence when faced with nauseating judicial travesty and impunity. On the part of the State, these three years have gone down as the first time in the annals of our great State where local government councils never began or commissioned a single project WITHOUT any withholding of Council allocations by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) through the Government of Rivers State to Caretaker Committees appointed by the Governor. Above all, the same PDP that was emphatic that our elections held without regard to the law and legal due process citing the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Governor Lagos v Ojukwu (1986) 1 NWLR (Pt. 18) 621 at 636, to wit: “…Once a dispute has arisen between a person and the government or authority and the dispute has been brought before the Court, thereby invoking the judicial powers of the State, it is the duty of the government to allow the law to take its course or allow the legal and judicial process to run its full course…”, is the same government that is proceeding to conduct another local government election in Rivers State on June 16, 2018 whilst the appeal it lodged at the Supreme Court in SC/536/2016 (RSIEC & Anor v Hon Augustine P. Ngo & Ors) is yet to be determined and disposed of. Now that hearing on same has been further adjourned to December 18, 2018, would the Rivers State Government whose chief executive, Nyesom Wike is a lawyer; his wife a Judge of the High Court of Rivers State; the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Chinwe Emmanuel Aguma, now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who was Counsel to the PDP in the self same FHC/PH/CS/84/2015 that led to the nullification of the 23/5/2015 polls now being questioned remember and thereafter remind Justice Uriri, a retired justice of the High Court of Rivers State and Chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, that the Supreme Court also held in Governor Lagos v Ojukwu (Supra) that: “The court expect the utmost respect of the law from the government which rules by the law”?
The eyes of the world are on Rivers State.
