Supreme Court Clears Coast for Imo LG Polls

*Dismisses Onuegbu, 26 others’ appeal 

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

The coast for the conduct of local government election in Imo State have been cleared by the Supreme Court, following the dissimal of the appeal filed by sacked chairmen of the 27 Local Government (LG) Councils in the state.

The last time LG poll was conducted in the state was in 2018 by former governor Rochas Okorocha.

Incumbent governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma had cited ongoing litigations as obstacles to conducting the LG polls in the past.

However, with the dismissal of the suit filed by Enyinna Onuegbu and 26 other LG chairmen, it is expected that the election would take place any moment.

Delivering judgement in the appeal marked: SC/537/2016, Justice Sadiq Abubakar Umar, who delivered the leading judgement held that the appeal was bereft of merit and dismissed it accordingly.

The five-member panel subsequently affirmed the earlier judgement of the Court of Appeal, Owerri division, which equally upheld the decision of the trial court.

Both lower courts had dismissed the case of the appellants as an abuse of court process.

Speaking shortly with journalists shortly after the judgement, the Imo State Attorney General (AG) and Commissioner for Justice, Mr C. O. C. Akaolisa, SAN, while commending the apex court for the verdict noted that the decision has cleared the way for the state to conduct LG polls.

According to him, the state government has been waiting for the outcome of the case to enable it conduct elections at the third tier level of government.

Akaolisa said, “The state government decide to await the Supreme Court’s decision in this case before conducting Local Government elections.

“We didn’t want to be seen to be disrespecting the court. It was out of respect to the court that we decided to wait.

“Today, the court has dismissed the action filed by the former Chairmen, contending their tenure. The state is now free to conduct Local Government election.

“The state’s election commission has already published notice of election. So, now, nothing is hindering us from conducting the election”.

It would be recalled that Okorocha had,  in his maiden broadcast in June 2011, announced the sacking of the elected local government chairmen, who assumed office under the tenure of his predecessor, Ikedi Ohakim of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Okorocha replaced the elected chairmen with his appointed Transitional Committee Chairmen for  the 27 Local Governments in the state.

While challenging their sack, Onuegbu and his colleagues had filed two suits, one at the State’s High Court and another at the Federal High Court.

The trial court declared one of the cases an abuse of court’s process, a decision the ex-LG chiefs appealed.

In its decision on November 20, 2016 the Court of Appeal, Owerri division, affirmed the decision of the High Court, which the ex-LG chiefs further appealed to the Supreme Court.