Abia Assembly Moves Against Otti’s Plot to Truncate Tenure of LGA Elected Officials~ By Enyinnaya Appolos
- Our NationNigeria
- Mar 20
- 2 min read
ONN Umuahia 20.03.2025
By Enyinnaya Appolos
…Approves Consolidated Account Management Committee for Abia LGAs
Governor Alex Otti’s attempt to truncate the tenure of elected local government officials in Abia State’s 17 LGAs from four years to two through the proposed Abia State Local Government Law 2025 has met strong resistance and rejection from the Abia State House of Assembly.
Reliable sources confirmed that during a meeting with the governor at his private residence in Isiala Ngwa South—where he has been unofficially governing the state—the lawmakers firmly opposed the proposal. They reportedly told Otti that it would be undemocratic to reduce the tenure of elected local government officials from the four years stipulated in the Abia State Local Government Law 2024 to two years, especially after the elected officials had already been sworn into office for a four-year term.
It was also gathered that the lawmakers advised the governor to reconsider such a move, warning that it would be strongly resisted by Abians and attract nationwide rebukes. They further cautioned that the opposition in the state, particularly the PDP, was poised to exploit the issue against if the bill is passed into law.
According to the bill:
“The Mayor and Deputy Mayor shall hold office for two years in the first instance and shall be eligible to be re-elected for another period of two years and no more.”
The lawmakers raised serious legal and democratic concerns over the proposal, arguing that altering the tenure of officials already sworn into office would violate the principle of tenure security and could be challenged in court as an unconstitutional interference in democratic governance.
However, after the rejection of the tenure reduction proposal, the governor and lawmakers agreed on the establishment of a Consolidated Account Management Committee for local governments. This provision, however, effectively grants the state government unrestricted access to local government funds, a move that contravenes the Supreme Court’s ruling, which forbids state governments from interfering with local government allocations.
According to the bill:
“The Accountant General of the Local Government and two of the Mayors of the Local Government Areas shall be joint signatories to the Local Government Consolidated Account, provided that any mandate for the withdrawal of funds from the account shall be signed by the Accountant General and one of the two Mayors.”
The Abia State House of Assembly is expected to pass the bill into law next week, as it is currently under review in the Committee of the Whole.
However, with growing concerns over the tenure controversy and the financial clause, the bill is likely to generate significant legal and political debates in the coming days.
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