Why Okorocha Sacked TC Chairmen As Mismanagement Of Council Funds Re-echoes Anti Party Factor, Losses At Booths, Wards Revisited

The dissolution spree of Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo St\te which has touched Transition Chairmen and members of the caretaker committees of the local government areas of Imo State has been attributed to several factors.
One of Okoroch’s top aides, in a statement said the Governor sent the transition committee members of the 27 councils packing after weeks of speculation that they will go the way of other Exco members who served Okorocha in the just concluded first tenure.
The dissolution which did not come as a surprise package to the chairmen can be said to be the apogee of heightened disaffection between the governor and the TC Chairmen over management of funds allocated to them for developmental projects in the past.
Trumpeta was told that Okorocha who was miffed at the manner the TC chairmen began to plot their removal moments after he came in for the second term.
It would be recalled that in the wake of the 2015 campaigns and to make meaningful impact at the grassroots controlled by the councils, a substantial amount of money was released to the council chairmen. The gesture from the governor saw each of the TC Chairmen receive not less than N30m to renovate and rescue ailing council secretariats in the state. Government House authorities who were monitoring the projects noticed defaults in the execution of the projects.
Of all the chairmen, two council chairmen during an interactive session with Okorocha at Government House, Owerri only stood tall and were exonerated from verbal lashes.
Only the two; chairmen of Oru West and Ezinitte were given attention while an aggrieved Okorocha asked others to go and fine tune their projects. The governor was also said to have left them empty-handed and refused to pay them their monthly entitlements. It was at that point the chairmen knew their days in office had been numbered.
Another factor that contributed to their removal was the incessant bickering between the respective council bosses with their TC members as well as leaders. This newspaper was informed that the governor was disturbed by phlethora of complaints trailing the co-existence of TC chairmen and their members, complaints from leaders of APC in the councils had continued to flood the governor’s office over conduct of some chairmen.
The “fail and fail-out” order given to the sacked chairmen before the 2015 election was the last straw that broke the camel’s back in the misfortune that befell the chairmen. It was learnt that the governor who was embarrassed that some TC chairmen lost in their booths and wards during the March 28, and governorship election suspected anti-party reasons for APC failure in the affected areas. That gave reasons for their removal.
Meanwhile, the sacked chairmen have been given grace till Friday before handing over to the DAGs of their respective LGAs.