Suspended Benue LG chairmen fault Gov Alia, insist they won't vacate office

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The Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has been accused perpetrating illegality and impunity by the suspended local government chairmen in the state.

The embattled chairmen faulted their suspension by the state governor after he assumed office.

Acting on the recommendation of the state House of Assembly, Alia suspended all the local government chairmen and their councillors in the state indefinitely.

The governor’s directive was contained in a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ode Ochelle.

But the chairmen under the aegis of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, vowed never to surrender to such illegality, stressing that they would not leave office.

The Chairman of ALGON in the state, Mike Uba, who addressed journalists on Saturday, said they would resume office on Monday.

Uba said there was a subsisting court judgment that they should complete their tenure without hindrance.

According to Uba: “We state without the slightest modicum of ambiguity or prevarication that we do not recognize such purporting of our suspension from office from such quarters as are purporting it, neither do we consider ourselves under any obligation to give heed to same or comply with any directive as emanates from it.

“Our position derives a fundamental base from the incontrovertible fact of our offices being a creation of law as guaranteed under the supreme umbrella of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As Amended in 1999) which recognizes the tier of government we function at as the third in a tripod made up of the Federal, State and Local.

“We will not surrender to illegality and impunity as is being contrived against us.

“If we surrender to the unlawful purported suspension preferred against us, we will be doing a disservice to Benue State.”