There are signs that the 23 local government chairmen who were elected in March 2022 under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are at odds with the administration of All Progressives Congress (APC) governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State.

According to Channels Television, the local government chairmen have sworn not to follow Alia’s orders to cede control and carry out the suspension as ordered by the state House of Assembly.

They made this statement to the media on Saturday in response to the assembly’s resolution and the permanent secretary’s order to be suspended on the governor’s directives, according to the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

The chairmen said they had briefed their lawyers to file a contempt suit against the state government for failing to respect an earlier injunction restraining it from sacking them from office

Through his Chief Press Secretary, Tersoo Kula, Alia responded to the chairmen’s position by stating that it was a suspension rather than a dismissal order.

According to the audit reports that have been received so far, it would enable extensive inquiries into the revenue and expenses of the councils, which are said to have indicated possible embezzlement.

On June 20, the governor received reports of income and spending from the 23 local government chairmen who were elected on the opposition PDP platform.
Unexpectedly, Alia stated that he had no plans to dissolve the group after the meeting, which many of the chairmen anticipated would be their last.

But a few days later, he received audit reports from the local councils, which he referred to the state assembly for investigation, and things seemed to change when the house passed a motion suspending them from office.

At a news conference, the chairmen declared that they would defy the order to leave before their terms ended in 2024 and that they had prepared a lawsuit against the state administration for contempt of court.

Following the PDP’s defeat in the March 2023 governorship election to the APC, the impasse between the local government chairmen and the governor appears to be the most recent development in an ongoing political conflict between the two parties in Benue.

See the letter from the bureau below: