No Authomatic Tickets For LG Chairmen – Amaechi

Henceforth, local government chairmen in Rivers State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not be given automatic tickets for future elections in the state.

Fielding questions during the monthly media briefing last Thursday in Port Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi lamented the low performance of chairmen of in the state.

He said he was not an advocate of those calling for scrapping of local government councils, but urged the electorate not to elect chairmen and councillors with no good track records of performance.

Most of the council chairmen elected to esteemed positions of leadership were mere fortune-seekers.

Amaechi regretted that of all the 23 local government councils, only four performed creditably to improve the socio-economic conditions of the rural dwellers.

Reflecting on his recent tour of some local government areas, Gov Amaechi lamented the non-performance of chairmen.

He described some of the councils as not more than mere outposts of anything but the development of rural areas.

However, Amaemchi scored the chairmen of Eleme, Abua Odual, Ahoada West and Gokana local government areas highly.

While laying squarely at the state legislature the oversight functions of the local governments, he made it clear that the chairmen of Degema and Akuku-Toru performed poorly.

He disagreed with the opinion that many local government chairmen in the state were hand-picked contrary to the spirit of the constitution.