The Centre for Women’s Rights and Development Initiative, under the leadership of Dr. Mrs. Marilyn Damian Okoro, has condemned the ongoing intimidation and alleged plans by the Bayelsa State Government, acting through the State House of Assembly and the legislative arm of the Sagbama Local Government Council, to suspend and remove the elected Chairperson of Sagbama Local Government Area, Hon. Mrs. Alice Allen Tangi.
Hon. Mrs. Alice Allen Tangi remains the only woman elected as a local government chairperson in Bayelsa State since the advent of the current democratic dispensation and the second in the state’s history.
The reported orchestration of her suspension and removal constitutes a direct affront to women, a betrayal of democratic norms, and an assault on the principles of local government autonomy.
Credible reports indicate that this planned action is being driven by political pressure linked to her refusal to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
We are disappointed with Senator Douye Diri, the Governor of Bayelsa, and his Deputy, Pastor Peter Akpe, for allegedly masterminding efforts to force her out of office for declining to join the APC. This is undemocratic, unconstitutional, and unacceptable.
Every Nigerian, including elected local government chairpersons, enjoys the fundamental right to freedom of association as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. No citizen is under any legal or moral obligation to join any political party, including the APC. Political affiliation must remain a matter of personal conviction and free will, not compulsion, coercion, or the threat of removal from office. It cannot be a ground for the impeachment of an elected official with a legal tenure.
It is important to note that neither the Governor nor the State House of Assembly has the right to remove an elected local government chairman, as their tenure is constitutionally guaranteed. In the landmark judgment of 11 July 2024, the Apex Court granted full financial and administrative autonomy to the 774 local government councils.
The historic ruling ordered that federal allocations be paid directly to local councils and prohibited state governors from dissolving elected local councils. As such, Governor Douye Diri and his Deputy, Pastor Peter Akpe, who is alleged to be behind Alice’s ordeals, have no power to remove or suspend her from office.
Why would Peter Akpe and other forces desperately want to remove a woman whose tenure ends in seven months’ time? She was duly elected under the PDP and has chosen to remain in the PDP. Her choice to stay on the platform that granted her the position should be respected; anything contrary is anti-democratic and must be condemned and resisted by all lovers of democracy and those who support women’s liberation.
The Centre calls on the Attorney-General of the Federation to immediately intervene and halt any planned unconstitutional removal or suspension of Hon. Mrs. Alice Allen Tangi. Such a move represents a clear threat to local government autonomy, a principle that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has publicly projected and advocated.
The Centre also enjoins the AGF to protect her tenure and directs that the security agencies be mandated to guarantee her safety, while ensuring that local government allocations are paid to her as mandated by the Supreme Court judgment.
We warn Senator Douye Diri and all those involved to desist forthwith from any action that would lead to the suspension or removal of the Sagbama Local Government Chairperson.
We call on the women of Bayelsa State and all Nigerians of goodwill to rise in defence of Hon. Mrs. Alice Allen Tangi, who is currently under political attack. The patriarchal structures that have long sought to keep women in subordinate positions must not be allowed to succeed once again. History has shown that whenever a woman dares to occupy space in a male-dominated political terrain and refuses to be controlled, powerful forces rise to push her out. This pattern must be broken.
Should Senator Douye Diri permit this grave injustice against a Nigerian woman and elected official to proceed, posterity will not forgive him.
Furthermore, we warn that Nigerian women will mobilise against the APC in Bayelsa and across the country if the party persists in intimidating one of their own simply because she has chosen not to join its ranks.
Membership of any political party must be voluntary, never the product of coercion or the threat of political elimination. Why are they not satisfied with seven chairmen? Why are they going after the only elected woman? What can a harmless woman do? They are doing this because she is a woman.
We therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the Accountant-General of the Federation to take the right step by immediately calling all parties involved to order and ensuring that Hon. Mrs. Alice Allen Tangi is fully protected from any planned suspension or removal, and that the dignity of her person and office is protected by the security agencies.
The Centre for Women’s Rights and Development Initiative stands firmly with Hon. Mrs. Alice Allen Tangi and with every woman who refuses to surrender her democratic rights to political intimidation.
Signed
Dr. Mrs. Marilyn Damian Okoro
Executive Director
Centre for Women’s Rights and Development Initiative