The crisis over the tenure of the reinstated council chairmen in Imo state is far from being resolved. This is Gov. Rochas Okorocha insists that the council bosses expired on August 8th, 2012 while the latter wants to their tenure extended in order to cover for the period they were out of office.
An Owerri High Court presided by Justice Ngozi Opara last Monday, ruled on an exparte motion stopping Okorocha from dissolving or declaring the office of the chairmen and councilors vacant on August 8 or thereafter. The Court further restrained the governor from appointing persons to take over from the council chairmen.
Most of the council chairmen who spoke to Pointblanknews.com insist that they would serve out the one year period when they were out of office.
Okorocha has accused the council chairmen of going to court in a bid to elongate their tenure. Their grouse by going to court is that they want their tenure extended. They want tenure elongation for one reason, that with in the period they were not in office because of the dissolution, they want to recover it back and got an exparte now stopping the governor from dissolving what has been dissolved by the law, the governor stated.
He further accused the chairmen of using all kinds of media campaign to portray him as someone who does not obey court orders, describing the situation as a breach of trust by the chairmen after he had agreed with them on the terminal date of their tenure.
Meanwhile, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Okorocha Administration of a plan to unleash mayhem on the state. In a statement endorsed by its Publicity Secretary, Blyden Amajirionwu, the party said, The government had issued identity cards to some thugs who have been trained on how to wreak havoc on the state the council chairmen should fail to vacate their offices.
The statement which asked the council bosses to go about discharging their duties, maintained that that nobody should doubt the plan to throw Imo into turmoil because the APGA led government in the state has demonstrated enough capacity for mischief and lawlessness.