Imo state government has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to instigate violence in the state on account of the just concluded local government election.
The Imo PDP on Tuesday, said the newly elected LG chairmen and councilorship were illegal.
The state Commissioner for Information, Public Orientation, and Strategy, Hon Declan Emelumba, disclosed that credible information at its behest indicated that PDP in the state wants to borrow a leaf from the recent violence in Rivers State against newly sworn-in local government chairmen and councilors.
Emelumba said it was too much of a coincidence that just 24 hours after the Rivers violence, PDP, in a statement on Tuesday, warned elected local government chairmen in Imo state to steer clear of the council Secretariats in the 27 LGAs.
The Commissioner argued that such a warning was ominous and portended danger and, therefore, demanded the immediate attention of the security agencies.
According to him, while PDP was free to rant and accuse the state of all unimaginable and unsubstantiated financial crimes, the threat of violence was not going to be tolerated.
He noted that it has been a while since the local government chairmen were sworn in after a successful election and wondered why the PDP was threatening them just 24 hours after the violence in Rivers State.
” If you went through their incoherent and contradictory statement of Tuesday, October 8, 2024, you will come out with the impression that they want to employ self-help in addressing their colossal loss during the local government election. They said their candidates ought to be declared winners and in the same breath, they alleged there was no election’, the commissioner pointed out.
He debunked the allegation by the PDP that the elected chairmen were forced to submit resignation letters in case they failed to do the bidding of the governor’
He also faulted PDP for claiming that Gov Hope Uzodimma has taken 50 percent of local government funds to finance the state electricity project, noting that all transactions regarding the project were transparent.
Describing the PDP as a sore loser that was never prepared for the election, Emelumba urged it to approach the court for whatever remedy it seeks, as advised by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He warned them against resorting to any kind of violence against the chairmen and councilors who were democratically elected by their people in their respective local government areas.
New LG Chairmen Must Steer Clear of Council Headquarters —PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State on Tuesday claimed that nothing resembling an election on September 21, 2024, and therefore, the purportedly elected 27 local government Chairmen and 305 Councillors are mere impostors and wannabes, bizarrely imposed on the people of Imo by the Hope Uzodimma-led State Government.
The main opposition party in Imo State said that the Chairmen and Councillors remain an illegal assembly, being used by their paymaster to undermine our democracy and the rule of law and to further oppress the already traumatized people of Imo by siphoning local government allocations.
In a statement by PDP’s Publicity Secretary in the State, Lancelot Obiaku claimed that the party had already intercepted intelligence regarding an alleged deal by the Uzodimma administration that will require each of the purported 27 LG Chairmen to return more than 70 percent of the local government allocations accruing to their LGAs to the State government’s coffers.
Speaking further, Obiaku said that to completely bind these appointed Chairmen and leave no room for rebellion, the Governor has allegedly forced them to sign their resignation letters and other binding documents, which will be enforced against any Chairman who fails to comply.
He stated that the State Government is also said to have previously signed off two years’ worth of LGAs’ allocations to an Egyptian company for an alleged electrification project of the State under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Imo PDP also claimed that while less than 50% of the total sum taken from the LGAs for the period under review was reportedly approved for the company in a deal that has yet to materialize, more than 50% is likely to end up in private pockets, as the Governor has never accounted for the monies received into the joint State/LGA account, which he continues to illegally maintain in sheer defiance of the Supreme Court’s judgment earlier this year.
The party called on anti-graft agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), to investigate these fraudulent activities and initiate the prosecution of the complicit individuals under the full weight of the law. These financial crimes must not go unpunished.
Imo, PDP also alerts these agencies, as well as the judiciary, to the failure of the State’s Chief Judge to constitute an election tribunal fourteen days before the agreed date for the LG election to receive pre- and post-election petitions. Furthermore, in blatant violation of the Electoral Act, the ISIEC allowed the APC to submit its candidates just two days before the election.
All of these are credible evidence that the so-called election was null and void. If any party and candidates were qualified to be declared winners under any circumstances, it must be the PDP and its candidates, who met all the requirements and submitted their nominations within the legal timeframe.
The party asked the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance not to credit any account in the name of the LGAs in the State in line with the Supreme Court verdict until a legally acceptable LG poll is conducted in the State.
The Imo PDP, therefore, insists that Uzodimma’s purportedly elected Chairmen and Councillors should not approach the LG Councils and must cease parading themselves as such, as doing so is an insult to democracy and the intelligence of the people of Imo.
