PDP tackles Alia over suspension of 23 LG chairmen

The Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday took a swipe at Governor Hyacinth Alia over the suspension of 23 local government chairmen in the state.   Daily Trust had reported how the newly inaugurated state house of assembly suspended the 23 LG chairmen to allow for their probe on allegations of misappropriation […]

The Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday took a swipe at Governor Hyacinth Alia over the suspension of 23 local government chairmen in the state.  

Daily Trust had reported how the newly inaugurated state house of assembly suspended the 23 LG chairmen to allow for their probe on allegations of misappropriation of funds.

But reacting to the development in a statement yesterday, the state Publicity Secretary of PDP, Bemgba Iortyom, said the governor and the state assembly led by the All Progressives Congress (APC) were confused.

The statement reads in part, “In a series of steps which may only be likened to the macabre dance of those drunken with power, the governor had on 14th June, 2023, through his Chief of Staff, Paul Biam, originated a correspondence to the state assembly purporting same to be a report of an investigation into the income and expenditures of the local government councils in the state from February to April 2023, requesting the assembly to investigate and make necessary recommendations on the report. 

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“The legislative house executing its own steps in this choreography of the absurd had brought the correspondence from the governor to the floor of the house on 20th June, 2023 and mandated a 3-man committee to investigate it and report back to the house within two weeks.”

The PDP regretted that the legislative house also sought to enforce its coup d’état at the third tier of government by enlisting the services of the Nigerian Police Force which they called upon to take over the secretariats of the various councils and called on the governor to set up caretaker committees to run the affairs of the councils.

Iorytom added that the government’s action contradicts a subsisting order of a court of competent jurisdiction through a perpetual injunction which in effect bars the Benue State government from taking any action, punitive or of the like, as seeks to tamper with the tenure of those duly elected councils at the local government tier of administration in the state.

He said government is not even known to have appealed against that judgement.