A’Court: Governor Rochas Okorocha has no right to sack a democratically elected council chairmen

By:  VAL OKARA, Owerri

The Court of Appeal, Owerri Division, yesterday reinstated the 27 Imo State council chairmen sacked by Governor Rochas Okorocha on assumption of office sparking jubilation across the state. The jury arrived at a unanimous decision in the ruling read out by the presiding Judge, Justice Uwani Attaji who had earlier struck out a cross appeal by the government.

Two issues were put up for determination; “whether the governor had the right to sack a democratically elected council chairmen and whether the governor had the right to institute a caretaker committee to administer the councils’ in place of a democratically elected council executive. The government amongst other things argued that there was a case against the council election prior to the election proper, which called to question the credibility of the said council election. The Judge however ruled that any case against the election was being overtaken by the conduct of the council election.

The Appeal Court dispensed with irrelevant technicalities that were hitherto raised at the lower court in the interest of substantive justice. It declared the reinstated chairmen as duly elected and restrained the governor or his proxies from interfering in their activities.  The court also advised Okorocha to concentrate on his executive duties and avoid the temptation of executive recklessness. 

The reinstated council chairmen are all of the PDP stock elected during the tenure of former Governor Ikedi Ohakim.