By John Odhe, YENAGOA
The removal from office of the Executive chairman of Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Mrs. Alice Allen Tangi and her vice by the State House of Assembly has sparked reactions from political observers in the State.
Rising from the Committee of The Whole at the floor of the house on Tuesday, Speaker of the house, Mr. Abraham Ngobere announced the removal of the SALGA chairman, citing gross misconduct.
The Speaker said the house relied on relevant sections of the Bayelsa State Local Government Administration Law, which he noted, authorized them to remove the SALGA leadership.
The Leader of the Sagbama Local Government Legislative Assembly, Mrs Diepreye Yankee, was said to have been sworn-in as Acting Chairman of the Sagbama council.
The Bayelsa State legislature is said to had allegedly defied a subsisting court order and summoned the council boss to appear before it unfailingly on Tuesday, August 18, an order she turned down, relying on the existing court order.
Justice D.E. Adokeme, sitting as vacation judge of the Yenagoa Judicial Division of the Bayelsa High Court, had on August 10, 2026, in an ex parte motion brought before him by Tangi, ordered that all parties “maintain the status quo, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed contemporaneously with this application”.
The order was made in connection to Tangi’s suit against the Government of Bayelsa State, the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, the Sagbama Legislative Council, the Leader of the Council and the Attorney-General of Bayelsa, all of whom were listed as 1st – 6th defendants.
While the case is billed for expedited hearing on August 20, 2026, the State assembly sat on August 18, and removed the embattled SALGA boss.
The chairman is being accused, amongst other things, to have spent some council funds without proper approvals and was yet to send in her budget for the year.
Reactions have been trailing the removal of Tangi, who was the only female council chairman in Bayelsa State in the current dispensation.
State chairman of the Civil Liberties Organisations (CLOs) and social commentator, Comrade David West, has this to say about the trending issue:
“As far as I (David West) am concerned, the reason for the removal is not practically based on those issues raised with respect to none transparency briefing, spending without budget appropriation, non appearance of the chairperson before the Assembly and not residing in the local government council.
“These are not the main reasons for her removal. In my opinion, I think it is politically motivated. It is because the chairperson has refused to move over to the APC with the state government.
“To me, what they (State Assembly) have done is to heat up the polity.
“The State Assembly shouldn’t have been in a hurry to remove her because they have been served a court process from one of the State High Courts to hold on, pending the determination of the notion on notice.
“The Speaker and the Assembly members should have waited for the court.”
The publisher and Editor-In-Chief of The Niger Delta Herald newspaper, Mr. Francis Dufugha also condemned the auster of the SALGA chairman, describing it as unlawful.
He said “The purported removal of the Chairman of Sagbama Local Government Area, Mrs. Allen Alice Tangi, by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly has once again brought to the fore a disturbing question: Who will hold the lawmakers accountable when they themselves disregard the law and court orders?
“As a stakeholder in the Bayelsa political space and Publisher of the Niger Delta Herald, my position is clear and unequivocal: no political office holder, no matter how powerful, is above the constitution, the courts or the law.
It is particularly troubling that the action was allegedly taken despite the existence of a court order restraining any hasty or unlawful process against the council leadership.
If that order was still valid and subsisting at the time of the Assembly’s action, then the issue is no longer merely political. It becomes a serious question of obedience to the authority of the judiciary and respect for the rule of law.
Tangi’s suit filed against the State Assembly and the State government, stopping her removal from office pending the determination of the motion on notice will be heard on Thursday, August 20, 2026 at the state High Court sitting in Yenagoa.
