OPEN LETTER TO THE SPEAKER OF THE 8TH IMO HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY

Hon Iheanacho Ihim
Speaker Imo State House of Assembly
House of Assembly Complex
Owerri
11/6/15

Dear Hon. Iheanacho Ihim:
The Youths for Human Rights Protection and Transparency Initiative (YARPTI) is saying congratulations on your election as the Speaker of the Imo House of Assembly .We wish you well in the great task ahead of you in Imo State. We are a non-profit organization registered with the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission (RC-76825) .You can call us a movement of people that have come together so as to change the face of human rights advocacy in Nigeria. We focus on the people that others forget people in poverty, people who face discrimination, people whose voices are ignored and people that are internally displaced. Our mission is defined in six areas : education ,legal aid , advocacy, war against corruption ,youth empowerment , counselling and rehabilitation.

We say may the almighty God grant you the wisdom to make laws in Imo wisely. We urge you not to follow the I-Better-Pass-My-Neighbour ways of the former Imo Speaker. The I-Better-Pass-My-Neighbour mentality of the former Speaker was why Imo people suffered in the midst of plenty from May 2011- May 2015. For the former Speaker, it is a complete insult to suggest that the rest of the people of Imo should enjoy employment opportunities, scholarships, grass root democracy and basic social amenities such as government assisted electricity, good roads, potable water and security. No, that would make everybody equal so instead of serving as a check of the excesses of the executive he reduced himself to a Zombie Speaker and a puppet of the executive.

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION IN IMO STATE

We believe that in order to see true democracy in Imo State, there should be elected council officials in the 27 LGA’s of the state . If we believe that power lies with the people then we need to provide democracy for the people at the grass root of Imo.

In flagrant disregard of express provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a contraption tagged “Transition Committees” was created to administer over the affairs of the 27 Local Government Councils in Imo State since 2011. The level of underdevelopment, waste and misadministration foisted on the said 27 Local Government Councils is thus best imagined.

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During Governor Okorocha’s inauguration as Imo State Governor in 2011, he swore to an Oath of Office to promote, protect and uphold the Nigerian Constitution. The said Constitution clearly provides in its Section 7 that: ‘the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed. By no stretch of the imagination can arbitrary appointment of persons, without any recourse to the electorate in a general election, to constitute so-called ‘Transition Committees’ be deemed as ‘democratic’ as envisaged by the said Section 7 of the Nigerian Constitution.

That Governor Okorocha’s administration has neglected and or omitted to conduct elections into the 27 Local Government Councils in the State since 2011, thereby depriving thousands of Imo people resident in these council areas of fundamental rights of participatory democracy as envisaged by the Nigerian Constitution is an impeachable offence.

YARPTI is making it crystal clear to you as the Speaker of the 8th Imo House of Assembly the blatant unconstitutionality of the use of ‘Transition Committees’ to man the affairs of the 27 Local Government Councils in Imo State.We are calling on you and the newly sworn-in House members to put a stop to Transition Committees in the 27 Local Government Councils and order for council elections to be held in the state before October 2015. Once again congratulations on your election as the Speaker of the Imo House of Assembly