The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Rivers State Chapter has charged members of the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) to join in the fight against corruption.
ACN in a statement signed by the Publicity Secretary, Jerry Needam while identifying with the various probes by the Rivers State House of Assembly in exercise of its legislative oversight functions, called for the release of the report of the investigation into the alleged massive looting of council funds leveled against the chairman of Ahoada East Local Government Council and all other reports by the Assembly.
“The RSHA must come clean on the fight against corruption and the only way to do it is to release these reports immediately” the ACN said.
According to the ACN, the fight against corruption must be taken seriously by the Rivers State House of Assembly irrespective of party affiliations.
The Publicity Secretary of ACN, Jerry Needam expressed fears, that these reports may have been dumped, because the reports are against members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“The PDP-led Rivers State House of Assembly should set value for our local government councils and act as a coordinator under its oversight functions”.
“The Assembly must also be proactive in its approach in fighting corruption at the local government councils, by embarking on quarterly inspection of projects and accounts books of the councils in Rivers State”.
The call has become imperative the ACN insisted, following allegations that some council chairmen spend their allocations on Hotel bills, buying of exotic cars and building of private mansions within and outside Rivers State.
More worrisome, the ACN expressed, some council chairmen operate from hotel rooms in very expensive hotels in Port Harcourt and neigbouring States.
ACN regretted that corruption has become the order of the day in some local government councils in Rivers State controlled by the PDP.
Jerry Needam challenged the RSHA to distance itself from the activities of corrupt council chairmen by bringing them to book, to serve as a determent to others.
This is the only way that claims in some quarters, that some council chairmen share allocations with some lawmakers will be dismissed by Rivers people, the statement concluded.
