During a congratulatory visit to Governor Monday Okpebholo at the Government House in Benin City on Tuesday December 3 2024 the Edo chairman of Association of Local Government of Nigeria ALGON and chairman of Orhiomwon local government Newman Ugiagbe pledged the loyalty and collaboration of the 18 council chairmen to ensure the success of the Okpebholo administration We are here to congratulate the Governor and the Deputy on the mandate Edo people gave them and to pledge our loyalty to your administration Ugiagbe said adding Our doors are open to your instructions policies and programmes as we are ready to bring your policies down to the grassroots to enable our people to benefit from the dividends of democracy as we will work to ensure your administration succeeds Responding Deputy Governor Dennis Idahosa who represented Governor Okpebholo said I have listened to you keenly the ALGON Chairman The Governor is a leader of all of us Election has come and gone and we are all one family The Governor has asked me to assure you that we are one family He has also asked me to tell you that we will work closely together As if to test the council chairmens pledge for collaboration with the administration Idahosa said I guess you are aware that few weeks ago the Assets Verification Committee was constituted Mr Governor is committed to transparency and accountability in this government and that committee would not have the resources to go across the 18 local government areas of Edo State The Governor would want you to submit your statement of accounts from 4th of September 2023 to date to the Assets Verification Committee within the next 48 hours 2 days as that would help and enable the committee do its job effectively and efficiently The Governor thanks you for your time But in a matter of days the promise of collaboration and working together as a family for the government to succeed flew out the window and politics took the front burner as the 18 chairmen all members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP reneged on their assurances to Okpebholo and refused to submit their statement of accounts for verification as the governor directed Following the chairmens resistance to the directive citing their financial autonomy as upheld by the Supreme Court Okpebholo in a December 16 petition titled Insubordination and Gross Misconduct by the 18 Local Government Chairmen Over Their Refusal to Submit Financial Records for Scrutiny reported the chairmen to the assembly which pending investigation suspended them and their deputies for two months under Section 20b of the Local Government Act for insubordination and gross misconduct for refusal to submit their financial records for scrutiny Now a huge political and constitutional crisis is brewing in Edo State as the council chairmen have dragged in the judiciary to intervene and it did intervene by setting aside the twomonth suspension the House of Assembly clamped on the chairmen and their deputies As reported by ICIRNIGERIAORG on Thursday December 19 a Benin City High Court presided by Justice Efe Ikponmwonba has ordered reinstatement of the 18 council chairmen and their deputies to their preDecember 17 2024 positions pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice adjourned to February 17 2025 for a hearing Directing that hearing notices be issued to the defendants the court ordered a mandatory injunction compelling the defendants including Governor Okpebholo the Edo State Government the AttorneyGeneral and the AccountantGeneral to restore the claimants to their respective offices and restrained the defendants from acting on the resolution passed by the House of Assembly suspending the chairmen and their deputies Obviously complicating matters for Governor Okpebholo is the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and Minister of Justice Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN who on Thursday December 19 declared as illegal and unconstitutional the suspension of the chairmen and vice chairmen of the 18 councils in Edo State Fagbemi fielding questions from journalists in Abuja said that based on the Supreme Court ruling of July 11 2024 granting autonomy to the 774 councils in Nigeria the prerogative to remove or suspend any elected council official rests with the councilors adding under the present dispensation the governor has no right to remove any local government chairman that much I know Nonetheless Governor Okpebholos fighting back by instituting on December 18 a sevenmember panel to investigate the stewardship of the council chairmen even as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC has jumped into the fray to investigate the embattled council officials Hours after the High Court ordered reinstatement of the council chairmen and vice chairmen on Friday December 20 a defiant Okpebholo declared that their suspension was within his oversight function of the local governments as reported by Nigerian Tribune Admitting that the suspension of the chairmen has sparked an intense debate Okpebholo said that a closer examination of the Constitution and the Federal AttorneyGenerals comments reveal that the decisions by the Edo State House of Assembly visavis the Governor of the State are entirely justified From a legal perspective the governors request to the House of Assembly to suspend the chairmen was done within his constitutional powers The House of Assembly had the right to turn down the request but opted to act on it It is therefore unfair to blame the governor Okpebholo said He argued If the governor had the powers to suspend the council chairmen unilaterally he would not have resorted to drafting a letter to the House of Assembly Again for the record the chairmen were not removed from office but suspended due to suspicious activities and the governor has the right to exercise the power of oversight The concept of autonomy is often misunderstood and in this case it does not mean that council chairmen cannot be oversight The House of Assembly has the power to oversight the activities of the governor and similarly the governor has the right to exercise oversight over local government chairmen The ongoing EFCC investigation of the 18 local government chairmen underscores the importance of accountability in governance Actually in a letter dated December 17 2024 and signed by its director of investigation Abdulkarim Chukkol the EFCC has summoned the council chairmen for questioning requesting certified documents detailing payroll records bank statements and council finances from January 2024 to date with chairmen from six councils including AkokoEdo Egor and Esan Central summoned to appear on December 19 while others were scheduled for December 20 Senator Okpebholo APC Edo Central comes with a mantra of Edo Rising Again and a fivepoint agenda to revamp the state for rapid development and economic growth from where former Governor and Senator Adams Oshiomhole 20082016 reportedly stopped Unencumbered by any godfather breathing down his neck Okpebholo hitting the ground running barely 24 hours of his inauguration on November 12 2024 with the groundbreaking of construction of firstever flyovers in Benin City Edo capital city continued in his notimetowaste haste to achieve tangible results in his first 100 days in office But like the typical politician he boasts he isnt Okpebholo mayve begun giving in to distractions to tackle what perhaps he sees as partisan antic of the council officials who as members of the PDP and backed by the Edo chapters of the PDP and ALGON have called the governors bluff Affirming their commitment to fulfilling their constitutional roles as no authority can prevent us from serving our councils the council chairmen declared that We will remain in office till September 2026 as our tenure runs from September 2023 to September 2026 as stipulated by law Both in context and in the contest the outcomes of Okpebholos directive playing out realtime have evoked scenes reminiscent of the hit song Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am off a 1971 album Roforofo Fight by the legendary Afrobeats maestro Fela AnikulapoKuti as the 18 council chairmen and their deputies have rejected their twomonth suspension by the Edo State House of Assembly Relating to Felas depiction of the oppressor and the oppressed Okpebholo as yanga the oppressor wielding executive power went and woke up trouble the council chairmen the oppressed who in their areas of jurisdiction are also oppressors And thats what Fela preaches against in Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am and indeed in all of his musical career of advocacy against societal ills and the oppression of Nigerian people In the song Fela warns that the suffering of the oppressed be respected and that if it is not then the oppressed is justified in their decision to revolt to take arms against the persons who mock their suffering and remain unempathetic to their oppression Culled from The Shuffle Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am Was Fela At His Most Succinct written by The Native October 18 2017 The council chairmen all of PDP which still nurses its defeat by the APC at the September 21 2024 governorship election that returned Okpebholo as winner were on their own when the governor gave them that 48hour ultimatum to submit their financial records from September 23 2022 when they came into office till date The council chairmens failure to obey Okpebholos directive and their subsequent suspension from office has created a constitutional crisis that may require intervention of the Supreme Court to clarify the relationship between the state and local governments under the financial autonomy the court granted to the councils in July 2024 As the battle line is drawn what next for Governor Okpebholo as the odds seem stacked against him Will he put his foot down and breach the rules and the Supreme Court judgment thatve granted local governments financial autonomy Thatll be illegal and unconstitutional and against the avowal by the governor to work harmoniously with the opposition Will the council chairmen back down and submit their financials as directed by the governor Thats unlikely as the 18 councils are very strategic politically and financially to the presence and participation of the PDP in Edo polity especially ahead of the 2027 elections even as the party pins its hope on retrieving its alleged stolen mandate at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal holding in Benin City What Okpebholo doesnt need now certainly not in the future is unnecessary selfinduced distractions The opposition with nothing to lose is at liberty to do anything to distract and divert his attention But its in the governors interest the interest of Edo people and the daunting tasks before him to prevent that from happening Mr Ezomon Journalist and Media Consultant writes from Lagos Nigeria Can be reached on X Threads Facebook Instagram and WhatsApp EhichioyaEzomon Tel 08033078357