Reactions and counter reactions yesterday trailed a proposed solidarity march for Governor Rochas Okorocha by civil servants in the state.
Speaking to Vanguard in Owerri, the Good Governance Initiative, TGGI, Imo State chapter, through their state coordinator, Onwuka Nwachukwu said the civil servants were forced to accept the idea of organising a solidarity march for Okorocha planned for this week or risk their job. This is as a Federal High court sitting in Owerri, presided over by Justice Lewis Allagoa, yesterday adjourned to 26th June, 2018, hearing on the matter challenging the validity of the congresses of the Imo State All Progressives Congress, APC. According to Nwachukwu, of TGGI, “Our investigations also revealed that the planned solidarity march for the governor will be made compulsory for civil servants and those who defy the order will be severely dealt with. “Apart from the fact that the planned demonstration is not in the interest of the generality of the people of the state, it is a well known fact that it is subject to being infiltrated by criminals and political thugs who may unleash mayhem on the demonstrators. “We are through this medium, asking civil servants in the state to resist this intimidation by refusing to participate in the planned demonstration.
The Imo civil service has the reputation of being one of the best in the country.” Also speaking on the planned solidarity march, the Imo State chairman of Trade Union Congress, TUC, Paul Akalazu, said: “I heard of it but I have not been formally notified. I will treat it as nothing until I receive formal notification.” In his reaction, the State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Nnamdi Obiaraeri said Imo workers decided on their own to honour Okorocha because of the lovely policies of the government to workers in the state. “It’s the decision of the Imo workforce. On their own, they chose to honour a man that has honoured them. What is bad about that? Okorocha is a labour- friendly governor.” Court shifts hearing on congresses to June 26 Meanwhile, a Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, presided over by Justice Lewis Allagoa, yesterday adjourned to 26th June, 2018, hearing on the matter challenging the validity of the congresses of the Imo All Progressives Congress, APC.
It will be recalled that the Judge, Allagoa, had earlier adjourned the matter to 22nd June, 2018. The second adjournment came after a counsel to the defendants, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria ,SAN, Kelvin Nwufor, pleaded to the Judge, that he would not be available on the 22nd June, 2018, giving the reason that he would be attending the burial ceremony of his mother in-law on the same date which coincided with the previous adjourned date. Speaking to newsmen, the cousel to the plaintiff, Chidozie Ogunji, said: “It has no implication whatsoever because the court made an order on the 18 of May. Anybody who wants to violate the order of the court can do so but for us, the rule of law must always be.
If you want to violate the order of the court, the consequences are there. “There is an extant order of the court which has been served on all the parties and I am sure that APC being a party which will ordinarily abide by the law, will not allow anybody who is affected by that order to participate in that convention.” In his remarks, C.O.C Akaolisa, counsel to the defendants in the ward, LGA and state officers of APC, elected under Hillary Eke, had his motion for joinder granted by the court. Imo LG poll threatened In a related development, the proposed Imo State Local Council elections may finally hit the brick wall, if National Industrial Court of Nigeria, NICN, sitting in Owerri, approves the prayers of the embattled chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission, ISIEC, Chief Amaechi Nwoha.
Already, the presiding Judge, Justice O. O. Arowosegbe, has fixed June 21, 2018, to rule on the motion, brought by Nwoha, seeking an order of Court, restraining the state government from removing him as ISIEC chairman, which he said “is tenured”. Chief Nwoha, who in suit number NICN/OW/15/2018, prayed the court to hold that he cannot be removed from office without following due process, also complained that he had not been paid in the past four and a half years. Nwoha equally urged the court to declare that the appointment of Mr. Ezekiel Ibeabuchi as ISIEC chairman did not follow due process, stressing that any action taken by the man (Ibeabuchi) in that capacity, “is illegal, null, void and of no effect”.
Nwoha’s counsel, Prince Ken C. O. Njemanze, SAN, told the court that his “client is in court to challenge his purported dismissal, termination of his appointment and subsequent protection of his tenure and not to discuss the contract document of employment.” Njemanze urged the court to dismiss the preliminary objections of the defendants and grant his client’s prayers, adding that their action was geared to further stall proceedings. “Chief Nwoha and his colleagues, can only be removed if the steps laid down in the Nigerian Constitution, as amended in Section 201. We also plead that the Court upholds Section 119, which stipulates the tenure of the Chairman and members of the Commission”, Njemanze said.
In her own argument, the Acting Solicitor General, J. C. Ibe Esq, who had at the previous sitting, asked for out of court settlement, however urged the Court not to grant Nwoha’s prayers. Ibe said that Nwoha was not entitled to his claims because his appointment letter did not stipulate what he pleaded. “The Court cannot look outside the document of contract of employment, by replying on other people’s documents to take decision”, Ibe said. In his own submission, ISIEC’s counsel, Mr. O. C. Olumba, pleaded for time, even as he urged the Court to dismiss the Claimant’s suit or remove the third to ninth defendants in the matter.
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