The Chief of Staff Government House, Port Harcourt, Hon. Tony Okochia, has described the case before the apex court which has to do with Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s tenure lapse as mere academic exercise which will not take People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as a party to anywhere, because “the case lacks substance”.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the party’s local government areas chairmen in Port Harcourt on Monday June 11, 2012, Tony Okochia added that as long as God permits, PDP will always rule Rivers state.
He congratulated the newly inaugurated chairmen, advising them to take their new office to serve the party well.
Addressing the chairmen, the state party chairman, chief Godwin U. Ake, charged them never to usurp powers, asking them to take his example.
He directed them to go home and inaugurate members of their executives the next Monday, being June 18, 2012, adding that they should not surcharge any member as the party will not take that from them.
G.U Ake said the list of all LGA elected executives are with the state and that none had been changed.
He frowned at any action that would depict dislike of any member for one thing or the other, saying they should try to work together as members of one family for the party’s sake in as much as they belong to a democratic party and said he was ready to work with every member of the party as long as PDP is concerned.
Chief Ake advised them not to engage in power struggle with their council chairmen, saying that the chairmen would surely carry them along in all things and emphasized that any chairman who refused to do this and attempt to remove any of them as party chairmen would be shown the way out by the party.
He cautioned the party chairmen to always report matters of conflicts to the state office as they would use their steering committee to settle the matter, making sure that due processes are applied without which no one would be disciplined and that they should learn to respect one another and work harmoniously. Ake urged them to manage the party well and go about preparations for the 2015 elections.
Speaking to this weekly, Hon. Bom, one of the inaugurated chairmen for the Port Harcourt LGA, thanked the party for giving him a chance to serve and said he would be proactive in his service, free from tribalism, but focused on the good of the party always.
He called on all PDP members in the LGA to stand up for the common ideology which the party believed in, adding that when this is done, they would be glad to get victory in all the elections as his regime is out to keep to the record the party had for years. ###
-Mene Gabrabe/Pius Dukor
