Posted by By Soni Daniel, Port Harcourt on
The Rivers State House of Assembly on Monday removed the Chairman of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area, Mr. Christopher Ogolo.....
The Rivers State House of Assembly on Monday removed the Chairman of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area, Mr. Christopher Ogolo, over allegations of gross misconduct levelled against him by his councillors.
Ogolo, an engineer, was indicted by a three-man judicial panel raised by the state Chief Judge, Justice Iche Ndu, on May 17, 2006 to investigate the allegations as required by the state Local Government law of 1996.
The panel, headed by Justice C. I. Uriri, in its report dated July 5, 2006, had found the chairman liable on many fronts and therefore recommended that he be removed from office.
In particular, the panel frowned on the payment of council funds running into millions of naira into the chairmans private engineering firm ROC Engineering Limited.
Also listed were allegations of the refusal of the chairman to hold Financial and General Purpose Committee meetings and the falsification of the councils account with a view to enriching himself.
The report jointly endorsed by the panelists, stated, From the totality of the findings, this panel has no other option than to come to the inescapable conclusion that the Chairman of Opobo/Nkoro LGA, Mr. Christopher Ogolo, has committed acts of gross misconduct as defined by Section 13 (6) of the Rivers State Local Government Law of 1996.
After many of the assemblymen had taken turns to deliberate on the report, they came to the conclusion that the chairman was a disgrace to the local government system and should be sent packing.
The Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. James Fuayefika, even suggested that the chairman and his cohorts in the council be made to refund the monies that they had allegedly stolen, besides being made to face prosecution.
Fuayefike said that, without taking a disciplinary action against the culprits, other chairmen and political office holders would continue to loot public treasury.
When the Speaker of the assembly, Rotimi Amaechi, put the matter to vote, 24 of the 26 members present, voted in favour of the removal of Ogolo while two abstained.
The members however rejected the removal of the Chairman of Khana Local Government Area, Mr. Kingsley Leh, on the grounds that the legislative arm of his local government did not follow the due process in impeaching him.
According to the members, only nine out of the 19-member legislature endorsed the impeachment notice as against the constitutionally approved two-thirds.
The members noted that although the panel indicted Leh on many fraudulent practices, the chairman had to be recalled because the councillors did not follow the laid down procedure in impeaching the chairman.