By Martin Opara
The 27 local government councils in Imo State are alleged to be presently in turmoil, as the newly appointed Transitional Committee Chairmen are said to be engaged in power tussle with the legislators representing their various state constituencies in the Imo House of Assembly.
According to our source, the chairmen, have since their inauguration, refused to be answerable to the law makers or carry them along. “Infact the council chairmen now deny the legislators access to the conference halls and other council facilities. They are all answerable to the Chief of Staff, government house, Chief Uche Nwosu, whom they prefer to take instructions from”.
There are also speculations by political pundits that the feud between the present T.C. chairmen and the legislators is traceable to the face-off between the governor and the lawmakers. They opine that the governor, in his alleged characteristic style of vendetta, may have instigated the chairmen against the lawmakers. “It is possible that governor Okorocha is using the council chairmen, who from all indications, are his loyalists, to get back at the legislators for initially snubbing him and boycotting the budget presentation”, few weeks ago.
Others who spoke, are also of the opinion that the T.C. Chairmen may have decided to ignore, disregard and refuse to cooperate with the lawmakers for allegedly extorting huge sums of money from them, before their successful screening by the house of assembly. “This may also have angered the council chairmen, most of whom, borrowed the money they allegedly paid to scale the hurdle”.
Most people who commented on the issue, said, from which ever angle one looks at it, the feud between the legislators and the Transitional Committee Chairmen, who are key players at the grass roots, is detrimental to the peace, progress, development and stability of our various communities and the state in general. Hence all hands should therefore, be on deck to ensure that the ugly scenario is nipped in the bud.
