Bloody War Looms In Aniocha North As Councillors Issue Ultimatum To Council Boss To Release Seized Vehicles

…..Stop Behaving Like A Child, Legislative Leader Tells Oseme, Denies Assault Story

Another round of fresh crisis envisaged to be bloody between the Aniocha North local government council legislative Arm and the council chairman, Mr. Chuks Oseme is currently looming with the councillors slamming a 48 hours ultimatum on the chairman to as a matter of urgency and importance release the confiscated vehicles belonging to the legislative arm and the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees, (NULGE).

Speaking during an interview with selected online media at his residence at Issele-Uku, headquarters of Aniocha North, the leader of the legislative arm, Ekene Nwaonye, accused the council chairman of the fanning the embers of war in the council, even as he vowed that the councillors were more than ever ready to protect the mandate given to them by the people.

ALSO READ: Aniocha North Boils Again, As Legislative Leader Beats Clerk, Absconds With Mace

“Are you not aware that Hon. Oseme has refused to release the official car and the bus meant for the Legislative Arm? Is he not the one heating up the polity?. We are giving him up till Tuesday, February 13, 2018 to hand over the various official vehicles to the Union and the ones for the Legislative Arm to them, with a view not to cause unnecessary crisis in the Local Government. As I speak to you, he is using about five official vehicles, and the Legislative Arm of the same government has none.

“Can you see how he is preparing the local government for war? Now, do you know that the first official assignment of Hon. Oseme on assumption of office was to collect the two official buses allocated to the union in the council and you expect the workers or the union to help him achieve his goal for the people of the area?. We are more than ever ready to protect the mandate given to us by the good people of Aniocha North.

“He is sponsoring sensational banner headlines in the media, calling his local government area and well meaning personalities who helped him to power, all kinds of negative names in the media. And the whole world is seeing Aniocha North as crises ridden, whereas you can see that peace is prevailing and he is the one instigating crisis.” Mr. Nwaonye said.

While debunking the story of his alleged assault on the clerk of the legislative arm, Mrs. Ifeoma Igbordo and absconded with the mace, Mr. Nwaonye, again accused the council boss of sponsoring negative stories against the councillors and the council therefore creating bad image for the council and its indigenes.

The leader of the legislative arm however cautioned the council chairman to brace up towards giving the people of Aniocha North good governance and “stop behaving like a child, it will not help him and the Local Government. He is the Executive Chairman of the local government, he should work towards enduring peace and progress of this local government area; we cannot progress in an atmosphere of rancour.”

Mr. Nwaonye, described clerk of the legislative arm as a “callous and wicked” Clerk who ab-initio has been detailed by the council chairman to frustrate members of the legislative arm adding that a situation where the legislative Arm directs the clerk to arrange for a sitting of the house and she flouts the instruction.

“She has done it on two occasions and we allowed it, just for peace to reign. Just last Wednesday again, she was directed to arrange and prepare for the sitting of the legislative arm for 8:00am on Thursday, she questioned the rationale behind our sitting that day, she was however briefed. On that Thursday, all the fourteen councillors were seated at the chambers, as arranged by 8:00am, but we could not sit until after 10:00am, because she came late with her husband, who is not our staff, carrying the mace of the legislative arm of the Aniocha North.

“What we did after the sitting, in-line with the collective decision of the 14 councillors, which included the Deputy Leader, Hon kidochukwu Offor, the Majority Leader,  Hon. Ekene Eziunor and the Chief Whip, Hon. Uche Chiejine, we directed the Sergeant-At-Arms to at all times leave the mace in the leader’s office, whereby, instructions and directives in respect to the movement of the mace, which you know is the symbol of Authority of the House, will always be given to him by the Leader.

“About 10 minutes after the directive was given to the Sergeant-At-Arms, the Clerk barged into my office where we were meeting and went straight to the mace. It was at this point that the councillors who were taken aback by the rude interruption of the Clerk, tried to force her to drop the mace, before I stepped in and dragged the mace out of her hand. She indeed flared up, called us unprintable names and boasted that so long as she remains the Clerk, she will frustrate our agenda of working against the chairman of the council.

“My colleagues were about to actually beat her up, but I calmed them down and collected the mace, put it in my car, came back to my office where we concluded our meeting before I left for Oleh for a meeting of leaders of legislative Arm that day. I did not abscond or run away with the mace, it is my symbol of authority and I have the moral and legal right to safeguard it for the overall interest of the people of Aniocha North.

“So the chairman of the council, Hon. Chuks Oseme now telling a section of the press that I beat up the Clerk and tore her clothes is unfortunate. Thank God, the legislative staff were all around when the incident happened, because as the executive chairman, will he allow a disgruntled element to abrogate his function as the executive chairman of the council?. Don’t forget we all have all it takes to sponsor bad press against him as a person and his office as the executive chairman of the local government.” the leader stated.

Additional report from asabametro.com