Niger Delta
Monarch Tasks Community On PVC Collection
Even as the permanent
voters cards registration exercise commences today in Rivers State, the Paramount Ruler of Oginigba Community in Obio/Akpar Local Government Area of the State, Eze G. B. Odum (JP), has called on the people of the community to come out enmasse and participate in the exercise, as that would guarantee them the inalienable right to choose among the candidates gunning for various political offices in the state come 2015.
The monarch who gave the charge in an interview with newsmen at his palace yesterday said the registration exercise was a good thing and a welcome development, saying, by the time the Oginigba people came out enmase and identify with the registration exercise, their political future would be guaranteed, as they would be at liberty to vote for candidates of their choice at the polls.
Eze Odum, however, expressed concern over the discrepancy between the announcements made by the Obio/Akpor Caretaker Committee Chairman, Chief (Dr) Lawrence Chuku and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega on the registration exercise, and regretted that OBALGA was not among the first seven local government areas in the state to take their turns on the day of commencement.
He, however, charged INEC and other agencies entrusted with the responsibility of making the exercise a huge success to rise up to the occasion and make the exercise hitch-free.
The Ogingba monarch also stressed the need for the people to conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner throughout the period of the exercise, saying, securing the permanent voters cards was their legitimate right to enable them exercise their franchise at the polls come 2015.
The Second Class Paramount Ruler equally urged politicians eyeing various positions in the state come 2015, particularly governorship aspirants to consider the interest and wellbeing of the State, stressing that the state today needed somebody as Governor who would be able to unite the people when the incumbent Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi bows out after serving his tenure in 2015.
He also remarked that criticising the present administration was not what the state needed now but that the people needed somebody with the vision to take the state to another level at the end of the tenure of the present administration.
Eze Odum particularly called on the Hausa community at the Slaughter Market in Oginigba community to abandon their legitimate businesses and come out enmasse to register during the exercise, saying, they should not see their business as a barrier, as the voters registration exercise was for the good of all indigenes and non-indigenes resident in the state.
In a related development, the Chairman of Butchers Union of Nigeria, Rivers State chapter, Oginigba Trans Amadi Slaughter, Alhaji Musa Baba Ahmed described the permanent voters cards registration exercise as a good thing to happen to the area, and called on traders at the market to embrace the opportunity and register for their permanent voters cards.
The chairman who made the call in an interview said the permeanent voters cards would enable them cast their votes at the polls come 2015, stressing that the executive committee of the union had adequately sensitised and mobilised the members for the exercise.
He also stressed the need for traders at the market to embrace peace at all times, as his administration was prepared to carry all along.