Rivers: Amaechi swears in caretaker chairmen

The Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi has sworn in caretaker committees for the twenty-one local government councils in the state. The state government had announced the dissolution of the council chairmen late last week. The government went ahead to submit list of nominees to be screened by the Rivers State House of Assembly. During the swearing-in ceremony, Governor Amaechi urged the newly sworn-in chairmen to be good managers of public funds. He challenged them to try and make an impact in their different local government areas. In his words: “To all the chairmen of the Local government committees and former chairmen of councils, congratulations. I wish you luck and I hope that you will swear-in the other members of your committee and I hope that you will apply your funds judiciously. Meanwhile, the Rivers State House of Assembly has explained why the House had to sit on a weekend. It could be recalled that members of the Assembly had an emergency sitting where they screened nominees for the caretaker committee of the different local government areas in the state. The House Committee Chairman on Environment, Hon. Victoria Nyeche told DailyPost that the House could seat at anytime of the week especially when there is an emergency. Nyeche said the sitting of the House was in accordance with the House rules of the Rivers State House of Assembly. She noted that the lawmakers had to seat in other to play their roles as legislators to avoid any vacuum in the local government councils as the tenure of the local government chairmen expires tomorrow. According to her, “The House rule makes provision for sitting of the House on any day that the House desires because the constitution allows us to regulate ourselves. “Secondly, the House rules say we can sit on any day, particularly when there is need for public interest and other circumstances. “So, because we do not want a vacuum in the governance of our state, since the tenure of local government councils has expired and they have been dissolved, there is a need for continuity”, she explained. The seven-man caretaker committee for the twenty-one local government areas were screened. The chairmen of Ogu-Bolo, Eleme, Gokana, Abua- Odual and Asari-Toru council were all returned.