The six local government chairmen suspended by the Benue House of Assembly on the request of Governor Samuel Ortom, have said that due process of the law was not followed in effecting their suspension.
The former chairmen, who addressed newsmen on Thursday in Makurdi, accused Ortom and the state legislature of “jettisoning the rule of law and resorting to untoward means in booting us out”.
Oguche Olofu, former chairman of Okpoku Local Government Council, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, however, acknowledged the powers of the governor to approach the assembly to seek redress, in the event of any breach of extant laws by the council chairmen.
They, nonetheless, said that the extant laws governing the conduct of local government operations did not support the action of the governor in requesting for their suspension, since the alleged offenses were not covered by the laws.
They also accused the governor of defying a subsisting court order directing him not to dissolve the council chairmen.
Olofu said: “We are amazed that in the haste to achieve its objective, the state deliberately forgot that administration of justice must always follow due process. We cannot recall anytime when the governor confronted any or all of us with this allegations before approaching the House of Assembly.”
They also accused the House of Assembly of not inviting them for verification in the spirit of fair hearing, before slamming the suspension on them.
They listed some of the offenses warranting their suspension to include failure to hold cash flow meetings, failure to obtain permission before traveling out of the state, failure to recourse to the budget before embarking on expenditure, among others.
He said: “The reasons given by the state government were `frivolous’; some of them are not within the purview of local government administration, especially the alleged embezzlement of school feeding and pension funds.
“The question on the lips of everyone is `when have pension and school feeding funds come under the administration of local government chairmen?”
The council chairmen, who threatened to sue the governor and the state assembly, called for the reversal of the suspension.
Reacting to the claims of the suspended chairmen, the Benue Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Mike Gusah, dismissed the claims as “unfounded”.
According to him, section 159 of the Local Government Law empowers the governor to institute such action against the chairmen.
Gusah said that the section allowed the governor to request for the suspension of any local government chairman, if allegations of financial impropriety were leveled against them.
He said that the six chairmen had been arraigned in court in absentia, but disclosed that warrants for their arrest were already issued.
Gusah denied flouting the orders of any court, and challenged the chairmen to produce such evidence.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that four other suspended chairmen – Becky Orpun, Gboko, Austin Okoche, Oju, Juliana Akange, Makurdi, and Comfort Echoda, Agatu attended the press briefing.
Terdoo Kenti, the former chairman of Kwande Local Government, was absent.
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