Imo House Of Assembly Suspends All 27 Elected LG Chairmen

The Imo State House of Assembly has suspended all the 27 elected local government council chairmen in the state over failure to honour an invitation to answer allegations of gross misconduct and misappropriation of funds leveled against them.

The suspension followed a motion moved by member representing Nkwerre state Constituency Mr. Chika Madumere who noted that the House had on several occasions directed the Council Chairmen to appear before it in company of their Treasurers, Directors of Administration and General Services last month but the Chairmen chose to appear alone necessitating the lawmakers to adjourn their appearance to today May 9th.

He equally added that at the resumption of plenary today, it was discovered that only the Treasurers, Directors of Administration and General Services appeared as none of the 27 local government area Chairman was present. And on several occasions the house had invited the local government chairmen through various media but at their own discretion decided to ignore the invitation of the lawmakers.

The lawmakers say the idea to summon the 27 local government chairmen came after a petition was sent to the house of Assembly alleging that the chairmen appropriated funds without the approval of the Councillors.

The Speaker of the House Mr. Iheanacho Ihim therefore ruled that the Council Chairmen be suspended indefinitely while directing them to immediately hand over the affairs of the councils to the Vice Chairmen.

Mr. Ihim asked the chairmen to return all government property in their possession while urging clerk of the House to communicate the decision of the lawmakers to the state commissioner of police Mr. Rabiu Ladodo to ensure compliance.