Rivers State Governor, Chibuike
Rotimi Amaechi has sworn in the new Chairman of the Rivers State Independent
Electoral Commission (RSIEC), Prof. Augustine Ahiazu.
Members of the commission were
also sworn-in at a short ceremony in government House Port Harcourt, Wednesday.
They are, Dr Eddy Adiele, Dame S. O. Nwachukwu, Dr. (Mrs) Vinolia S. Fubara,
Ibiso Dakoru, Kennedy Tsaro Pueba and Kathryn Ngozi Ajayi.
Amaechi mandated the commission
to organize credible local government elections in the state in 2014.
He said, “I think to an extent I
liken the position you hold to that of a pastor which is sacred and you are the
Altar of God. I think that the position you hold will determine the credibility
of the kind of election you organize.
“Now that you have been chosen,
it is between myself and my God and between you, your God and the public. Your
name will either be written in the history book of Rivers State as people who
have dispassionately discharged their responsibilities or as people who others
might see as those who helped to ruin the future of others in the state.”
The Governor said he had
carefully chosen the members of the state electoral body to reflect the desire
of his administration to organize transparent and credible local government
polls in the state.
According to him, “this country
must move away from the current situation that we find ourselves where
elections don’t matter, where leaders are known as rulers, where they don’t
bother about the electorate and this situation where leaders are not
accountable to the people because they are not elected; and the only way they
can be elected is if the process by which the election is organized is
transparent, and that starts with the kind of persons who hold public office.”
Amaechi assured that he would not
meddle in the affairs of RSIEC and promised prompt release of funds to
enable the electoral body to do its work.
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