Bayelsa Dep Gov Tasks LG Councillors On Service

Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, has urged local government councillors to shun acts that will destroy their political career, pride and honour in society.
The Deputy Governor, made the call at the weekend during a meeting with all the councillors from the eight local government areas of the state in Yenagoa.
He condemned their recent protest against government over car allowances and other welfare issues.
Ewhrudjakpo pointed out that, as legislators at the third tier of government, much is expected from them in terms of how they go about handling their grievances and core mandate of law-making, oversight and representation.
Describing the councillors as the image of their respective wards, the Deputy Governor urged them to refrain from any behavior that would portray the government, which they are part of, in bad light.
He said although the remuneration and welfare of councillors falls under the purview of local governments, the present administration is making efforts to address some of the issues agitating their minds.
According to the him, the Senator Douye Diri led government would never pay lip service to workers welfare, assuring that his office was working closely with council chairmen to tackle their legitimate demands within the limits of available resources.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo specifically promised that government would work out modalities for their training, cars and ward projects, explaining that their sitting allowances for last month were delayed for purposes of accountability and transparency.
In similar vein, the state’s second citizen, also resolved the lingering disagreement between the Councillors’ Forum and its Leaders counterpart with a directive to councils that are yet to nominate their two representatives to the Councillors’ Forum to do so without any further delay.
“As legislators, demonstra-tion is not part of your core business of law-making, oversight and representation. The parameter to judge your performance is how many bye-laws you sponsored and the number of motions you moved to better the lot of the people you represent”, he said.
“Your performance is not on the basis that you were able to impeach a chairman, or force people to buy you a car or give you money for running cost. There are ethics and procedures. Councillors are legislators and not trade unionists”, he added.

Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa.