Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has implored monarchs to steer clear of partisan politics in the 2023 general election.

He said the traditional rulers should rather provide a level playing field for all parties.

Senator Diri spoke yesterday in Yenagoa during a meeting with the Traditional Rulers Council at its secretariat.

He urged the monarchs not to allow any party to hijack the process to perpetrate electoral fraud.

He, however, hoped that the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would end electoral malpractices.

The governor said: “As custodians of our heritage and culture, it is incumbent on you to provide a level playing field for parties in the state to freely canvass for votes in a conducive and peaceful atmosphere.

“We all know that issues like elections fragment brothers, sisters and communities. So, as we approach the 2023 general election, I implore traditional rulers to remain apolitical. Don’t allow any party to hijack the process in your domains to perpetrate electoral fraud. If this happens, while the traditional ruler sits in the comfort of his home, his recognition will be withdrawn.

“You have been recognised in your kingdoms as custodians of our heritage and culture. In Bayelsa State, you have been performing administrative duties, working with council chairmen.

“I had directed the local government chairmen to involve traditional rulers in their monthly Security Council meetings. Our security architecture has been rejiged and for the past one month, crime rate has reduced.”

Responding to the issues raised by the Chairman of the Traditional Rulers Council, King Bubaraye Dakolo, the Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom; Diri said efforts between the state government and security agencies on improving security on land and waterways were yielding results, particularly in Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw local governments.

On the dearth of teachers in schools in rural areas, the governor directed the Commissioner for Education, Gentle Emelah, to ascertain the number of teachers in urban schools and ensure a balance with their counterparts in the rural areas.

Diri, who approved renovation of the traditional rulers’ secretariat through the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, assured them that government would look into other issues of review of stipends, running cost and provision of utility vehicles.

King Dakolo praised the developmental strides of the Diri administration, particularly in the execution of people-oriented projects across the state.

Dakolo, who pledged the monarchs’ support to the government, highlighted a number of issues bordering on security, education and other concerns of the council.

The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Abe, has said the coming 2023 general election would be a watershed in the political history of Nigeria.

The lawmaker, who represented Rivers Southeast, said there would be political tsunami in the state next year.

Abe’s spokesman Parry Benson said the senator made this known on Wednesday when he inaugurated SDP constituency office in Obio/Akpor Local Government.

Benson quoted Abe as saying: “To all of us that are here, I will deliver one important message. I have said it several times that 2023 elections will be a watershed in the political history of this country.

“In Rivers State, 2023 elections will be a political tsunami because it will break every known bound and barrier.”

He assured the people that their votes would count and would bring about justice, fairness, among others.

Abe urged them to ensure they vote for credible candidates.

“Let me tell you that our votes, our support in 2023 will ensure justice, fairness, equity and progress in the land.

“Everybody that wakes up in the morning is looking for progress. Progress is not when the state is rich, progress is when you make money for yourself; that is progress.”

He said the time had gone when elections were won and lost along party lines, adding that a lot of things had happened in the country that made the people to learn their lessons.

The SDP House of Assembly candidate for Obio/Akpor Constituency 2 in 2023 general election, Chikwem Orlu, assured the party of the commitment of members in his constituency to mobilise voters for it in the general election.

He said: “The people you are seeing here today are teeming supporters of project Senator Magnus Abe (SMA).

“My business this evening is very simple; it’s just to tell you that this people you are seeing here today have unanimously agreed that no vote will go to another party other than SDP on whose platform you will become the governor of Rivers State in 2023.”

Anambra State Ministry of Justice has frowned at the rate policemen disobey court orders in the state.

Consequently, it has written Police Commissioner Echeng Echeng to address the situation.

Also, the ministry has directed the CP to order two of his men to appear in court to testify in a matter they are prosecuting.

The petition followed the failure of the two policemen to appear at a Magistrates’ Court sitting at Nanka in Orumba North Local Government on May 24.

The court had equally issued a bench warrant against the two policemen (Paul Aigbogun and Baba Etta, a Sergeant and a Chief Superintendent of Police).

They were summoned to appear in court on August 2 to testify in suit NO AJMC/338C/2019 (COP vs Kingsley Chinedu Iloduba), but they failed to obey the order of the court.

A bench warrant addressed to the CP and other police officers was made available to reporters yesterday in Awka.

In a memo signed by a Principal State Counsel, I. J. Oguejiofor, for the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, the Commissioner of Police was also asked to cause the two police officers to appear in court to give evidence in the matter.

When the attention of police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu was drawn to it yesterday, he said he had not sighted the letter.

However, he assured that the command would get to the root of the matter.

Some residents have been complaining about consistent and reckless way and manner court orders, rulings and judgments were being ignored by the police command.

Speaking with The Nation yesterday, an industrialist, Chief Ben Ezeibe, said the police leadership in the state should sit up.

He said such disregard for court orders does not augur well in a constitutional democracy.

Vice Chancellor of Bayelsa Medical University (BMU), Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, has exonerated Governor Douye Diri from involvement in the decision by the institution’s management to disengage 198 casual workers.

He said the workers were improperly absorbed in 2019 during the administration of ex-governor Seriake Dickson, declaring that their engagement was improper and violated the employment rules of the BMU.

Etebu said although the institution had reverted to status quo due to the intervention of the leadership of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) and the Commissioner for Education, Gentle Emela, the casual workers were disengaged due to their repeated restive nature and the institution’s demand for new lecturers for its courses to be accredited.

He spoke yesterday while reacting to claims that Governor Diri was responsible for the disengagement, accusing the administration of alleged sectional sack.

He said Diri had nothing to do with the decision to disengage the workers, stressing that the governor had nothing to do with the situation.

Etebu said: “I am the vice chancellor. I told them that because they were trying to destabilise the institution, they would be disengaged. Every time they were threatening and saying that they were ‘going to do this and that’.’’

“And I told them, ‘look, you have no use to us and you don’t even come to work’. And if you ask very well, because of the hard times, we have tolerated them all this while, but the thing is that, they are now trying to take advantage of the situation.

“People have been misleading them that they have kept you as casual workers for this period, you are now entitled to be employed and they have also taken that hook line and sinker and started to threaten the management of the university. They go out and tell lies.

“They go and write on the Facebook and collude with the opposition. They use it to malign this current administration just to score cheap political points. The institution decided to step them down due to constant security reports of their threats/restiveness to go on protest and make the university unmanageable.”

He said besides that, in the last quarter of this year, the institution would be embarking on a flurry of advisory visits from over 13 regulatory bodies and the National Universities Commission (NUC).

He noted: “This is a ritual in a specialised university as ours. Those outside the system do not understand these dynamics. We need professional lecturers, technologists, technicians, etc. Now, all that is in the minds of our people is employment for our ‘young graduates’, irrespective of our specialised requirements.

“These casual workers were foisted on us with a promise to provide salaries for them, which never came. The university has a regulation of employing three academic staff to one non-academic staff.

“Currently, as things stand, our ratio is the reverse. We will implode if we continue in this manner. We don’t want a re-enactment of the ugly incident that occurred a few years ago at the Niger Delta University (NDU). Ab initio, BMU advertised and employed its academic, non-academic and principal officers following these due diligence principles.

“The governor has nothing to do with this particular situation. I, as the vice chancellor, spoke to them and said, I was going to step them down because we have programmes that have been approved for us and we were supposed to run those programmes and we were supposed to get lecturers to run them.

“So, it is not their employment that is more important to us, because we don’t need them in the first place, but because we are in a state where there are no industries, everything is the civil service and their cronies have been able to leverage people who have an appointment to foist them on us.

“They are now thinking it is their right to get employed. The times are hard, even the government is finding it difficult to pay salaries and all that.”