– As Councilors, Staff, other stakeholders protest
The Executive Chairman of Owerri North LGA, Hon Lucky Abaraonye, is literally sitting on a keg of gun powder as most of the aggrieved Councillors, staff and other principal stakeholders have called for his impeachment over allegations of of financial impropriety, lack of transparency and disregard for due process which have elicited rancour and acrimony in the council, thereby scuttling enabling environment for development.
Some concerned stakeholders who spoke on the condition of anonymity expressed disappointment that despite the huge amounts that accrue to the council monthly, there is nothing to show for it.
Commenting on the recent publication by the Nigeria Watchdog Newspaper and the rebuttal published by the Secretary of the council in the White Paper Newspaper edition of October 20, 2025, a respected community leader and veteran Journalist, Comrade Vin Amadi, who hails from Agballa, in Owerri North LGA said, “I am surprised to hear from the management of Owerri North Local Government Council that it distributed solar powered street lights lights to all communities in the Council area, courtesy of the combined efforts of members of the National Assembly representing the area. There are 21 autonomous communities in Owerri North LGA and my community, Agbala is one of them. As I write this now, we have not seen a unit of the solar lights in my community.
In refuting the allegation of misapplication of the solar lights, the Council should have done the needful by giving details of the number of units appropriated to each community and the contractor that handled the installation. Such details should have affirmed the truth that the council claims to express in its refutal.
However, I will organise my community to demand our share of the solar powered street lights from Owerri North Council. I want to put on record that in the past two years of the life of the council, my community, Agballa, has not benefited a single amenity from the council.”
Speaking in the same vein, another respected community leader and stakeholder, Nze Tony Chukwu, popularly called ( Nze TONEX) who hails from Uboegbelu Emekuku, in Owerri North LGA said, ” as regards the purported distribution of solar powered street lights in communities in Owerri North LGA as claimed in the rebuttal published in the White Paper Newspaper of Monday October 20, 2025, I wish to unequivocally describe it as calculated falsehood from the pit of hell.My community Uboegbelu, is one of the component communities in Owerri North LGA.There is neither a single solar powered street light nor development project initiated by the Lucky Abaraonye administration since inception.
Some staff of the council who are not happy over what is happening also said, “aside from the monthly allocations, the council rakes in huge sum of money from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) including Advertisement/Signage fees, liquor license, temporary structures, sanitation fees, street naming fees, among others, from all the communities in the Local Government Area, including Emekuku, Orji, Uratta, Amakohia, Akwakuma, Ulakwo, Naze, Agballa,Obibi-Ezena among others. Yet, there is absolutely nothing on ground to justify such income.
The vicinity of the ancestral Orie Uratta Market Square that is directly opposite the Local Government Headquarters, aside being covered with grasses, is always in steep darkness at night despite the numerous solar street lights donated to the council by the Nigeria National Development Commission (NNDC). Should the vicinity of the Council headquarters not benefit from such largesse?”
“Rather, information at our disposal has it that the Chairman, distributed the street lights among some of his god fathers, friends, relatives and associates instead of deploying them for the use of those for whom they were donated”.
Continuing, they said, “much as we are not against his personal progress and development in life, but the level of his massive transformation gives credence to speculation that the council has continued to flout the state government’s directive that revenue should be paid into the government’s Single Treasury Account (TSA). For instance, Hon Lucky Abaraonye, who until his recent appointment was living in his elder brother’s house at Okwu Uratta, is said to have bought several plots of choice properties and is currently building a magnificent house in his compound that is almost completed, aside the one he allegedly bought in Owerri Municipality Though, it is a good and commendable development but what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Hence it is wrong for him to continue with the alleged “grab it all mentality” that makes him prosper at the expense of the people who he was elected to serve and improve their welfare by dispensing the dividends of democracy, courtesy of the humongous amounts accruing to the council through monthly allocations and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).”
Some prominent members of the area who are also respected stakeholders who don’t want their names in print to avoid being accused of anti-party activities and because of the respect they have for His Excellency, Dist. Senator Hope Uzodinma’s 3R administration said, “there is need to call Hon Lucky Abaraonye to order because he is demarketing the Governor and the state government in Owerri North. We have it on good authority that he is reportedly running a “one man show, does not carry the Councilors and other Principal Officers in the council along because he often boasts that he ‘settles’ and has the backing and tacit support of some power brokers in the council who are close to the corridors of power”.
Some Principal Officers in the Council who also pleaded anonymity said, “do you know that despite the positions we occupy here, we are not aware of most of the things he is doing and the projects he is executing. The only person he takes into confidence is the Head of the Works Department with whom he is operating and flagrantly violating all regulatory procedures for the award of contracts, execution of projects and disbursement of funds.
The impunity in the council has reached unprecedented level, as funds earmarked for the execution of projects projects are allegedly paid into the personal bank account of the HOD Works, who is a civil servant. He allegedly executes, supervises the projects and the disbursement of funds contrary to civil service rules, regulations and operational guidelines. That probably accounts for why he was shielded from the recent mass transfer in the Council, despite acquiring a Lexus 350 GLE car recently.”
Efforts to hear from the Executive Chairman proved abortive as he did not respond to the several calls and text messages sent to his phone and that of his aide.
