The 23 Local Government Chairmen in Benue State elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) but suspended by Governor Hyacinth Alia’s administration via the House of Assembly on Friday have said they will not comply with the instruction from the state lawmakers.

The suspended chairmen who were led by their ALGON State Chairman who doubles as Chairman of Guma local government area, Dr Michael Uba, made their position known at a joint news conference held at the state secretariat of the PDP in Makurdi, the state capital.

They said that they do not recognize the purported directive issued by the state lawmakers and the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs suspending them stressing that they will resume fully in office tomorrow.

According to them, they were democratically elected by the people of their respective local government areas, noting that they weren’t appointed and no one can illegally remove them from office.

“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.

“We were elected as council chairmen on 30^th April 2022 in the local council elections conducted by the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) and sworn into office on 29^th June 2022.

“We, in line with the provision of extant law proclaimed the legislative councils in our various areas which were also duly elected and thereafter forwarded to them our nominations for the offices of Supervisors whom we swore into the various statutorily designated offices, together with Special Advisers to our offices.

“We were not appointed into office but were elected by the electorate of Benue State and vested with a mandate which is guaranteed under the law, with the procedure for the administration of the councils under our leadership clearly provided for under the Local Government Establishment Law of Benue State.

“It is, therefore, not known to us under such law, that we and the entirety of the government at our tier of it can be sacked in the manner as purported by the state Assembly and the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

“We equally defer to the judgement of the National Industrial Court holden in Makurdi which barred the government of Benue State at all levels from taking any action as seeks to temper with our lawfully recognized mandate as elected council chairmen.

“That judgement of the court is still subsisting and we are not even aware that the government appealed against it”.

The visibly angry council chairmen stated unequivocally that they expect the present administration in the state to lead the way on the quest for strengthening an order of law and respect for due process, rather than promoting what they called impunity and the sort of anarchy we are seeing in the actions of the state Assembly and the local government bureau.

They maintained that as Chief Security Officers of the 23 local government areas of the same, they are critical stakeholders and leaders in the state and will at all times be willing to tow the path of peace, law and order, and this we have been doing since being sworn into office in our various councils. (Saturday Telegraph)

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