The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Chief Nyesom Wike has revealed that the suspended Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara and the state house of assembly would be reinstated on September 18, to work with the new chairmen and councillors.
Wike who made the assertion shortly after casting his vote at ward 9, unit 7, Rumuepirikom, Obio-Akpor local government areas, during the local government councils election on Saturday, said the synergy would help to stabilize the state at the grassroot level.
The FCT Minister who praised president Tinubu for ensuring the conduct of the elections, said the timely elections would avert caretaker committees at the local government areas which had been abolished by the supreme court.
He said, “We have to thank Mr President for taking the bold step to make sure that this election is conducted, if the election is not conducted, you know that the supreme court has said there is nothing like a caretaker committee in local government, so if there are no elected people it means that funds will not come from the federation account to local government councils.
“That means that if the emergency rule is lifted and there is no local government election, we will still have the same problem, so now that the local government election is taking place, it means that there will be elected people and then they would be able to access funds directly from the federation account.
“Therefore everyone must rally round to support the conduct of this particular election in order to stabilize the grassroot level, by the time the state of emergency is lifted on the 18th of September, it means that the Governor and the state Assembly will come back, so without the local government, it would not have been complete.”
Also speaking after casting his vote at his polling unit in Rumuigbo, Obio-Akpor LGA, Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha, adjudged the election to be the most peaceful he had ever participated in.
Okocha said, “This is unusual for the elections that I have participated in, nobody is pushing anybody, everywhere is calm, the voters came and voted for their candidates.
“The exercise started around 9 o’clock and it has been done turn by turn, as you can see others are waiting for their turn to vote. I just voted.”
Chief Okocha advised whoever will emerge as winners to bring development to bear and to govern the people with a human face.
“They are going to hold the fort for the people and they are expected to be people oriented, expected to dot the entire local government areas within their capacities and capabilities with infrastructural development and projects,” he said.
On his part, the Chairmanship Candidate of the PDP in Obio-Akpor LGA, Dr. Gift Worlu, expressed excitement over the massive turnout of voters at his LGA., noted that it was consequent upon the vigorous campaign they put up prior to the elections.
Speaking shortly after casting his vote at ward 15, unit 19, Ndudor community, Choba, Worlu thanked the electorates for their show of support and understanding, encouraging them to keep up the tempo.
“We are happy that our people are out here performing their civic duty and I think this is a testament to the incredible campaign that we had, talking to our people about the need for us to come together to confront and defeat the many problems that confront us as a people.
“We are happy that we have this massive turnout of voters, it goes to show that our people understand that democracy cannot win if we don’t fight for it, so I want to thank our people for this show of support and understanding and to encourage them to keep up the tempo.”
Our correspondent who moved round Obio-Akpor local government area of the state to monitor the elections, observed voter apathy as most polling units visited had scanty voters.
Youths took advantage of the deserted streets and main roads to play football, as one of them claimed that the results for the elections had already been written, hence his vote wouldn’t count.
