Burutu Councillors Disassociate Selves From Council Chairman Alleged Impeachment

The councilors representing Burutu Local Government Area Wards 13 and 14, Hon. Joseph Asiaye Alubeze and Hon. Sunday Oruekpeti respectively, have disassociate themselves from the alleged impeachment of Chief Ebikeme Clark by the Legislative Arm of the Council, saying the impeachment lacks merit as it did not pass through due process.

The councillors who spoke separately in Warri on Thursday said that the clerk of the house Mr. Choice Weleke was not in the sitting when the suppose vote of no confidence was passed on the council Chairman.

According to them, before such an action can be carried out by the legislative arm, the clerk of the house ought to have been present during the plenary and he is the only one that has right to sign such resolution on behalf of the house to the state House of Assembly or elsewhere.

Alubeze stated that it was improper for a recorder to take proceedings without the clerk of the house, adding that he was not even aware of the sitting and the same time they needed to explain in their allegations of how the council chairman misused the council funds.

According to Alubeze, “the legislative arm failed to adhere to order 32.1 of the Standing Rules and Orders which states that the rules and business committee shall allocate time to all motions or bill coming before the legislative house. And the house also failed to adhere to section 31.1 of the Local Government Law Book 2013 as amended which spelt out all the procedures of impeachment of the council chairman.

“If you read these sections I earlier quoted, you will find out that the purported impeachment and vote of no confidence process were not properly followed as such it lacks merit”, he added.

On his part, Oruekpeti added that the procedures were never followed because the chairman was never invited to render income and expenditure and the motion of impeachment and vote of no confidence moved by his colleagues was never referred to the rules and business committee.

He said, “at the emergence of the new speaker, all committees were dissolved and till date no committee has been constituted by the house because this is his first meeting after his emergence on 15th of August, 2017. So with all these explanations it’s very clear that the purported impeachment of the council chairman lacks merit and it is null and void”.

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