I won’t impose any candidate on the people - Amaechi

Bolaji Ogundele, Port Harcourt - 03.02.2008

RIVERS State Governor, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, has said that he does not have the intention of imposing any candidate as chairman for the forthcoming local government polls.

The governor, who made the clarification during a meeting he held with the people of Akuku Toru Local Government Area, at Abonnema, said the responsibility to elect council chairmen and councillors rests squarely with the people.

According to him, "as Governor of Rivers State, I do not have such powers to impose anybody as chairman of any council in the state. Rather, it is the responsibility of the people to choose the best candidate". Amaechi declared that the State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) has already laid down the principles governing conduct of the local government polls in the state.

Meanwhile, opposition parties, under the umbrella of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), have said they would participate actively in the exercise.

Already, aspirants have reportedly besieged the state secretariat of the Action Congress (AC) to collect their nomination forms for the councillorship and chairmanship polls.

The rush by the aspirants to contest the poll on the platform of the opposition party, sources told newsmen, may not be unconnected with a number of factors, chief of which is the perceived romance between the Governor Amaechi-led administration and AC governorship candidate in the April 14, 2007 election, Prince Tonye Princewill.

The AC flag-bearer had stunned political observers, and even his own party- men, when he announced the withdrawal of his election petition challenging the victory of the ruling PDP in the April 14, 2007, poll; following the installation of Rt. Hon. Rotimi C. Amaechi as governor of Rivers State by the Supreme Court, last October.

A top AC chieftain had told Sunday Tribune had disclosed under condition of anonymity that the rush for the party's nomination forms for the council poll was a sign of good things to come.