By Mark Lenu
Some residents of Rivers State have hailed the ruling of an Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt which struck out a tenure elongation suit brought before it by the immediate past elected local government chairmen in Rivers State. The court, on Monday, dismissed two appeals instituted by the sacked Local Government Chairmen loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
The appeals, marked CA/PH/137M/2024 and CA/PH/145M/2024, were filed by the former Chairman of Opobo/Nkoro LGA, Enyiada Cookey-Gam, and six others, challenging the decisions of the High Court regarding the elongation of their tenure. While delivering its ruling, the court ruled that the appeals lacked merit and consequently struck them out.
While hailing the judgment, a cross-section of residents in the state told our correspondent that the decision of the court of appeal was a good one for Rivers people. They wonder why local government chairmen would think of having their tenure in office elongated, describing such thought as selfish and detrimental to the state.
“The law gave them three years to be in office and also allows another three years if reelected to make a total of six years for two terms, yet they still want to remain in office. We perceive their quest to remain in office as self-serving. “We thank God for the court who in its wisdom disagreed and dismissed the suit. Politicians should learn to serve the people, not thinking of elongating tenure.
“Anybody who can not be satisfied with the stipulated tenure period as provided by law should not think of contesting election. “Elected offices are not meant for politicians who cannot give their people the dividends of democracy, we want selfless leaders to be in office, and after the expiration of their tenure, they should honorably leave office,” the residents said.
