By Eze Adiuku
Imo State finds itself at an uneasy governance junction. With barely 72 hours to a keenly anticipated Local Government election, and the mandate of the sitting council administrators already expired, the State House of Assembly has moved swiftly to plug what could have become a dangerous vacuum at the grassroots.
On Wednesday, lawmakers at the Assembly complex in Owerri passed an amendment to the Imo State Local Government Administration Law No. 6 of 2024, now to be known as the Imo State Local Government Administration (Amendment) Law, 2026. Its central thrust is simple but consequential: where an election fails to hold before an incumbent council’s tenure lapses, Governor Hope Uzodimma is empowered to appoint an Interim Management Committee to keep the machinery of local governance running until elected officials can be sworn in.
The timing tells its own story. The tenure of the current crop of elected Chairmen and Councillors across Imo’s 27 councils ran out on September 21. The Assembly did not act until two days later — a gap that, however brief, placed the state technically without a clear administrative authority at the local level, pending whatever comes on Saturday.
That Saturday date, September 26, is when the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC) intends to conduct elections into all 27 chairmanship seats and 305 councillorship positions statewide. It is an exercise ISIEC has held firm to — even as a legal cloud gathers over it.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), through four of its state executives, has dragged the commission before the High Court of Imo State in Owerri, contesting the process on more than one front. The suit, filed as HOW/1380/2026, names ISIEC, its Chairman, and the state’s Attorney-General as defendants. At the heart of APGA’s grievance is the electoral notice ISIEC issued back in September 2025, which the party insists failed to name a specific election date. The party has also queried the subsequent notice of September 11 this year, which fixed the poll for the 26th, alongside broader concerns about the voters’ register and how the new Electoral Act 2026 has been applied. APGA wants the court to halt the election altogether pending a full hearing.
In a detail that will not be lost on close observers of Imo politics, the application for an interlocutory injunction came up for hearing on the very same Wednesday the Assembly passed its amendment — the legislature effectively building a safety net on one floor of governance while a courtroom several kilometres away weighed whether the election it was preparing for would even proceed.
Introducing the bill, the Leader of the House, Hon. Kanayo Onyemaechi, framed it as a necessary safeguard against any interruption in service delivery at the council level, insisting that governance at the grassroots could not be allowed to grind to a halt over legal or logistical uncertainty. He found ready support on the floor. Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Amara Chyna Iwuanyanwu spoke to both the substance and urgency of the measure, while Hon. Chisom Ojukwu, representing Nwangele State Constituency, grounded the argument in relevant provisions of the Nigerian Constitution. Contributions also came from Hon. Innocent Ikpamezie (Mbaitoli), Hon. Chigozie Nwaneri (Oru East), Hon. Johnleoba Iheoha (Ikeduru), Hon. Uzoma Osuoha (Ohaji/Egbema), Hon. Uche Agabige (Orsu), and Hon. Gilbert Nwosu (Oguta), reflecting a fairly broad spread of support across the House.
After clearing First, Second and Third Reading, the bill was passed, and the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Chike Olemgbe, directed the Clerk to prepare a clean copy for transmission to the Governor for assent.
It is worth being precise about what has and has not happened. The new Section 16A of the law simply creates the legal pathway for an Interim Management Committee to be appointed if an election does not hold ahead of a council’s tenure expiring — it does not, by itself, name anyone to such a committee, nor does it confirm that the Governor has exercised that power. As things stand, no IMC has been announced for any of the 27 councils.
What remains, then, is a state watching two clocks at once — one counting down to Saturday’s ballot, the other running on a court’s timetable that could yet reshape what Saturday looks like. Unless a contrary court order emerges before then, ISIEC’s published schedule stands, and Imo voters are expected at the polls as planned. But the Assembly has now made sure that whichever way the legal and electoral dust settles, there is a framework in place to keep council administration from stalling.
For outgoing officials, contesting candidates, party structures, and residents across Imo’s 27 Local Government Areas, the coming days will matter a great deal — not just for who wins, but for whether the election happens at all in its current form.
Adiuku, a journalist and media consultant, sent this piece from Enugu
