Ex-chairmen kick against planned protest by Rivers LG workers

Embattled Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, (ALGON), Rivers State Chapter, Allwell Ihunda, has kicked against the alleged planned protest today by the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) over the baricade of the Local Council secretariats by the police.

NULGE had given the police a four-day ultimatum to vacate the secretariats or they would mobilise their members to occupy the streets of PortHarcourt.

The Guardian gathered that NULGE has swiftly called off the planned protest following a tip-off that suspected hoodlums and supporters of the embattled chairmen have concluded plans to hijack the protest.

Briefing newsmen Sunday evening, Ihunda said, “We are aware that in spite of the matter in the Court of Appeal, on the 19th of June, the Rivers State Governor went ahead to appoint caretaker committee members for the 23 local government areas of the State in spite of the fact that the Court has stated clearly that all parties should maintain status quo on all the suits”.

“Now from the list of caretaker committee members we observe that across the 23 LGA appointments were made from NULGE members as part of the caretaker committees whereas these NULGE members are staff of the council. They were not supposed to be”.

“We noticed that NULGE has collaborated with the NLC and TUC to carry out a protest tomorrow 24th Day of June against the police men that the Inspector General of Police has ordered to stay in the councils to maintain law and order to foreatall further deaths that was experienced in Omuma LGA.”

Similarly, the embattled Ex-Emohua Local Government Chairman, Chidi Lloyd threatened that, they(ex-chairmen) can cause any violence they want but stated that they will not do so.

“These are people (NULGE) now who are dangerously aligned in the seeming dispute. We have capacity to cause whatever violence that they want, but we will not do that because we cannot because we cannot be seen to be maiming the same people that we are leading,” Lloyd stated.