Blast in Rivers as court sacks LG chairmen

Lambo Akanbi, justice of a federal high court in Rivers state, has sacked the 22 local government council chairmen‎ of the state.

‎According to Akanbi, who also dissolved the local government councils, the election of the chairmen on May 23, was in violation of an earlier court order restricting the past government of Chibuike Amaechi from conducting the election.

But the judgement was preceded by a bomb blast near the court. Nyesom Wike, governor of the states, confirmed the blast to Reuters, saying there were no casualties.

“I think they were trying to disrupt the result … the high court decided that the election was illegal,” Wike said. “It (the blast) was close to the high court, nobody was killed and it didn’t affect the building.”

‎The council chairmen, who are said to have been installed by Rotimi Amaechi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of the state, had ‎been locked in confrontation with Nyesom Wike, incumbent governor and member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over their election in May.

There is no love lust between Wike and Amaechi, so the council chairmen view Wike’s determination to oust them from office as the pursuance of vendetta. Therefore, they have approached an industrial court in Bayels‎a state on the same matter.

On Wednesday, Chimbiko Akarolo, mayor of Port Harcourt, led a delegation of the council chairmen to the APC secretariat‎ in Abuja to seek the party’s intervention in the matter.

Meanwhile, Wike has sworn in 22 caretaker committees. The governor said he did so “to avoid any vacuum in government”.

He advised the newly sworn in chairmen to discharge their responsibilities effectively, saying any one of them who does not live up to expectation would be relieved of his duties.