In an exclusive interview with Arise News from 15:30, Samuel Nwanosike, former Chairman of Ikwerre Local Government in Rivers State, criticized the state Governor, Siminalayi Fubara for his handling of Local Government elections. Nwanosike accused the Governor of hypocrisy, citing his delayed action on conducting elections and subsequent rush to hold polls on October 5th.
Nwanosike highlighted the Governor’s inaction, which led to the expiration of tenure on June 17th, creating a power vacuum. He commended the Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Martins Amaewhule, for extending the tenure of Local Government Chairmen to prevent a vacuum. The Supreme Court’s validation of this decision was also praised.
However, Nwanosike raised concerns about the Governor’s sudden haste to conduct elections without a budget or legal framework. He questioned the legitimacy of the process, citing court challenges to INEC’s participation and the Police’s role.
Nwanosike emphasized that building on a flawed foundation will only lead to chaos. He reiterated that the House of Assembly’s decision to extend the tenure of Local Government Chairmen was necessary to maintain stability.
In his words;
The same Governor who waited since last year and knew that 17th of June will come when there’ll be expiration of tenure as enshrined by the Rivers State House of Assembly , kept quiet and didn’t conduct election because he wants to do caretaker. Now he’s in a hurry to do election on the 5th of October and the question is with what Budget? People have gone to Court to say INEC don’t give Voters register, INEC don’t participate, Police don’t participate. Now if these organs and organization who are supposed to be part of this Local Government election do not participate, how can you build something on nothing and expect it to stand. So for us we believe that the House of Assembly was right as led by Martins Amaewhule to say since the Governor does not have an appropriation and it’s not captured anywhere that he intends to do an election, what we’re going to do is to extend the tenure of the Local Government Chairmen, so that they can be in office to hold on, so that there’ll be no vacuum and the Supreme Court has agreed to the Rivers State House of Assembly led by Martins Amaewhule that that’s the proper thing to do”….Vìêw–Morê