Leadership crisis has paralysed activities in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, where the chairman, Chief Tiwe Orunimighe, is allegedly on the run, investigation has revealed.Orunimighes absence was said to have generated tensions in the council, leading to protest by workers whose salaries had allegedly not been paid for three months.Our correspondent learnt that the trouble, which started in the wake of the rift between the Peoples Democratic Party leadership and Governor Timipre Sylva, had assumed a dangerous dimension.It was learnt that Orunimighe had not been sighted in the council for over two months following an indication that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was on his trail over allegations of financial impropriety.The council chairman and his deputy, Mr. Felix Bony-Ayah, have been at loggerheads over Sylva.While Orunimighe declared his support for the governor, Bony-Ayah and most councillors in the council were said to have declared their loyalty to the leadership of the PDP and the partys governorship candidate for the February 2012 poll, Mr. Seriake Dickson.The councillors loyal to Bony-Ayah had moved a motion suspending five of their colleagues said to be sympathetic to the council boss.One of the council employees, who pleaded anonymity for fear of victimisation, said the aggrieved workers had once protested against the council for not paying them their salaries.He said, We have not seen the council boss for some months now. There is nothing working in the council because we have not been paid our salaries for three months.Our correspondent learnt that members of the legislative arm of the council moved a resolution on Friday empowering Bony-Ayah to act as the council boss.The legislators were said to have based their action on long absence of the chairman and his refusal to appear before a seven-man disciplinary committee set up by the councils chapter of the PDP.The councillors claimed that the chairmans absence had affected administrative activities in the council and led to non-payment of salaries and allowances of workers.Confirming the development, the Leader of the Legislative Committee on Information and Conflict Resolution, Mr. Oyinkoro Kene, said members of the legislative arm deliberated on the petition against the chairman and discovered that all issues raised against him were correct.He said, We even got a newspaper publication reporting that the council chairman is wanted by the operatives of the anti-graft agency. We have summoned him but he is nowhere to be found.We also believe that governance cannot be in a vacuum. Our people want us to report back. Now, for the last two months, salary has not been paid. There is nothing for us to do but to invoke the relevant portion of the constitution.The absence of the council chairman was done without due process. We have resolved to make the vice- chairman to act in the capacity of the chairman.It is a fraudulent act for a council boss to disappear from duty. If the Chairman refuses to surface within the next 90 days, the vice-chairman will be made the substantive chairman.But Orunimighe faulted the claims of his councillors and his vice-chairman, saying their action was unconstitutional. The chairman who responded to a text message sent to him by our correspondent however, refused to respond to the claims that he had abandoned his office for over two months and had refused to pay salaries.
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