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Rerun Polls Favour PDP Candidates …As Rivers Voters Count Losses Under Amaechi Govt

Published

10 years ago

March 18, 2016

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Sotonye Wakama (left), in a chat with Resident Electoral Commissioner, INEC, Rivers State, Aniedi-Ikoiwak, during an accord meeting with politicians and candidates for the 19th March rerun election on Wednesday in Port Harcourt.

As the Rivers electorate go to the polls tomorrow for the Appeal Court-ordered rerun elections into both the National and some state Assemblies public opinion weigh heavily in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates.
Exit polls conducted by The Tide shows that 89 per cent of civil servants do not want to have anything to do with any candidate of All Progresses Congress (APC) who worked under the administration of former Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
Nearly all 200 respondents polled said the candidates on the platform of the APC were with Amaechi when the government in preference for politics spent state resources on party activities at the expense of three months workers pay and about five months retirees benefits.
Such insensitivity they said, did not present the candidates as persons capable of representing the people’s interest.
The non-payment of workers affected trade and commerce , Rivers being a predominantly civil service state, as market women and other small enterprises owners groomed for lack of businesses.
Appolus Nna, a fisherman who supplies fish to traders at the dry fish market along Creek Road, said those final months of the Amaechi government were hell for him and his colleagues.
“Fish that we would normally sell for N10,000 was priced N3,000 by buyers who complained of lack of funds on account of poor business”.
Madam Oberenisiki Appolous, a trader explained that most of their customers bought their wares on credit promising to pay as soon as their salaries were paid. “But it dragged on from one to three months until the administration of Chief Nyesom Wike cleared the arrears and brought our business back on track”.
A retiree, Pa Abednego Berthwell said it would amount to madness for anyone to vote any enemy of his progress to govern him.
“A government that abandoned retirees, indeed senior citizens to die of hunger for more than five months does not have any moral justification to meet the same people for their votes” Berthwell said.
According to him, many retirees who couldn’t endure the five months starvation lost their lives. “will the children of such parents be foolish enough to still elect such sadists? he wondered.
Ironically, what APC failed to do was what the new Wike Administration did, and which endeared the PDP even more to the Rivers electorates.
Frank Udom, a commercial bus driver said the single fact that the new government broke the jinx of using rain as excuse and upgrade many hitherto impassable roads marks it out as a people-oriented government.
“Before the roads repair, nothing would make me to load passengers going to Borikiri and New Road areas because of the state of the road and long queues. Today, that road is my goldmine” Udom said.
Infact, go to the Isaac Boro Flyover area, opposite The Tide office, along 4 Ikwerre Road, even former Governor Amaechi would not believe that such transformation could occur with the years old big gully that nearly cut the road into two impassable parts.
“What of the UTC junction? At lest Amaechi used to use that part of Port Harcourt while he was governor. Can he not tell the difference,” Udoh wondered.
According to him, most of his colleagues plying other parts of the state also speak well of the government on road construction. Areas which they used to avoid as no-go areas are now goldmine commercial routes, Udoh further explained.
From Ogu/Bolo Local Government Areas, Mr Longinus Gad, a youth leader said he was wondering what the APC candidates would give Rivers people as reasons why they should be voted.
“I was proved right, because they had nothing, they did not bother to campaign. They instead, relied on the Transport Minister and former Governor Rotimi Amaechi to resort to threats of using soldiers to intimidate Rivers people, Mr Gad said.
“The Rivers Youth, Mr Gad said can no longer be exploited as thugs during elections and labeled cult boys thereafter and abandoned or killed”, Gad said and assured that the electorate would vote according to their conscience and based on facts on ground.
However, an APC ward officer, Mr Dere Ishmeal said his party’s candidates will win not just because of the former government achievements but because the party enjoys Federal support and protection of armed security to carry the day.
“APC too will win, after all PDP won when they were in power at the federal level, Dere opined.
Apart from that and very few respondents, virtually all are unanimous that the Court of Appeal judgement that annulled the valid election of the people’s elected representatives was a waste of time and resources.
This is because, according to them, Rivers people are prepared to defend their votes in favour of those who stood beside Governor Wike to pay workers salary arrears, repaired and constructed roads, renovated abandoned schools, built bridges and restored the judiciary’s pride of place, among many other achievements.

Our Correspondent

News

FG Ends Passport Production At Multiple Centres After 62 Years

Published

11 hours ago

September 19, 2025

The Tide

The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.

He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.

“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.

He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.

“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.

“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.

“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.

He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.

Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.

He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.

News

FAAC Disburses N2.225trn For August, Highest In Nigeria

Published

12 hours ago

September 19, 2025

The Tide

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.

This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.

The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.

Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.

The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.

From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.

From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.

Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.

From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.

News

KenPoly Governing Council Decries Inadequate Power Supply, Poor Infrastructure On Campus

Published

13 hours ago

September 19, 2025

The Tide

The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.

The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.

The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.

Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.

He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.

This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.

The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.

Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.

He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.

The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.

Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.

Chinedu Wosu