By Lawrence Njoku, Enugu
23 April 2024 | 1:22 am
An activist, Ifeanyi Okonkwo, has dragged Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, and his predecessors, Chris Ngige, Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, to court for allegedly running the affairs of the 21 local councils in the state with unelected officials.
Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo. PHOTO: AUTHORITYNEWS
An activist, Ifeanyi Okonkwo, has dragged Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, and his predecessors, Chris Ngige, Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, to court for allegedly running the affairs of the 21 local councils in the state with unelected officials.
Okonkwo is praying the court to hold that by administering the councils through officials who are not democratically elected, Soludo and his predecessors have contravened both Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and a subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court, which earlier declared that Anambra State Government lacked powers to appoint officials to govern the local councils.
Okonkwo is claiming that having acted contrary to the Constitution, which they swore to uphold, the defendants should be barred by the court from contesting election or occupying public office or seeking for re-election under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The suit, marked FHC/AWK/CS/90/2024, was instituted through originating summons at the Federal High Court, Awka, joining the Federal Government as the 1st defendant.
In the suit in which he cited an earlier order of the court delivered on September 26, 2006, Okonkwo also seeks an order to compel the defendants to render, before the court, all funds they illegally expended or by agents and privies during their respective administrations, while executing their illegal and unconstitutional usurpation of offices at the local councils.
He also seeks an order directing that the defendants namely: the Governor of Anambra State (2nd defendant), Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Anambra State (3rd defendant), Anambra State House of Assembly (4th defendant), breached the mandatory duty cast upon them in Sub-section (4) of Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and flagrantly violated a subsisting judgment on the matter.
He equally asked for an order directing the defendants to publish, before the court, allocations from the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the respective 21 local councils in Anambra State from 2006 to 2024.
Okonkwo asked the court to order the Federal Government to put into effect the unanimously passed resolution of the Senate, asking it to halt the statutory allocation of funds to local councils where chairmen and councilors were not democratically elected. Okonkwo demanded exemplary damages of N100 billion in his favour against the 2nd to 8th defendants.
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An activist, Ifeanyi Okonkwo, has dragged Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, and his predecessors, Chris Ngige, Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, to court for allegedly running the affairs of the 21 local councils in the state with unelected officials.
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