The Chairman of Eleme Local Government, Chief Brain Gokpa, has said he and other younger politicians in the local government have retired Senator Olaka Nwogu from the political leadership of the local government area.
Chief Gokpa spoke on a day that Senator Nwogu celebrated his 60th birthday. Olaka Nwogu, a former Chairman of Tai/Eleme Local Government, was at different times a Member of the House of Representatives and a senator representing Rivers South East.
The Eleme council chairman was incensed that Nwogu had failed to demonstrate leadership in the local government area despite holding influential political offices in the past.
He said the people of Eleme have been liberated politically from selfserving political leaders with the coming of Governor Siminalayi Fubara into office.
Gokpa said, “The House (of Representatives) Committee Chairman on NDDC started from him. And today he is just going around. He cannot do anything.
“As a young Eleme man growing up, I have asked them to retire. We were the ones doing the mobilization for them. Irrespective of that, they could not find their bearing. They should go and rest.” Gokpa declared.
He said Eleme now had a new political leader in the person of Chief Oji Ngofa. He said since Ngofa assumed the political leadership of Eleme he had not bothered himself in amassing wealth from local government funds.
He said he has been telling his fiends that this was the best time to a local government chairman because of the financial autonomy and the fcat that politica leaders in the local government area have not been bothering him about giving them money.
“All local governments in Rivers State have financial autonomy under the leadership of our governor. Also the leadership of our party, Amb Oji Ngofa has not and does not interfere in the running of the local government.
“This is strange to the usual practice in Eleme where at the end of every month when allocation was out, they would call you to Landmark (place of a political leader) and say okay how much is it? You say N340 million, N380 million. They would say leave that one on top. It is for the leaders. For now nobody interferes with what I do. That is why you see that there is significant progress,” Gokpa said.
The council chairman said in the next seven months, the governor would be invited to inaugurate Eleme Local Government Secretariat.
