Rivers governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2015 general elections, Dr Dakuku Peterside says members of the party recently elected into the state House of Assembly shall join their colleagues whenever and wherever the House would sit to deliberate on issues affecting their constituents.

Dr Peterside, who stated this in a chat with journalists at the Port Harcourt International Airport, poured cold water on insinuations that the Speaker may not inaugurate elected APC members of the Assembly.

He called on the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Dabotorudima Adams, to respect the office he occupies by immediately swearing-in the elected members of the APC, insisting that nobody would stop the lawmakers from taking their seats in the Assembly.

According to him, “The Speaker knows that he has no power under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria not to swear-in people who were duly elected and returned by INEC. Their people have elected them and they must be allowed to perform their constitutional duties.

“The era of impunity is gone for good. I want to assure that any day, anywhere and time the Rivers State House of Assembly decides to sit, elected members of the APC will be part of all deliberations. Rivers state belongs to all of us and no one is more Rivers than the other. We will challenge impunity in this state.

“It is a shame that this is happening. The two chambers have since inaugurated Rivers legislators that were elected into the National Assembly. Why is this happening in our state? Is the speaker saying he has more rights than the rest of us?

“My appeal to the speaker is that he should follow the path of honour and write his name in gold. He should not listen to those who might be urging him to continue in illegality.

Rivers citizens have been elected and he should allow them to perform their functions.”

Peterside, who is also the DG of NIMASA, one again reminded the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike that Rivers people were yet to see the 2016 budget and would continue to demand for it since it is a law passed by the Assembly.

He accused Wike of running one of the most fraudulent administrations in Nigeria, where only the governor knows the value of projects and awards contracts that his commissioners do not even know how much is being expended.

“Let the whole country know that Rivers State did not have any budget for 2016. On several occasions, the governor and his commissioners have been asked on live radio programmes about the state’s budget and none of them has been able to produce one.

How will Rivers people know if they are not being short-changed?

“Only recently, the governor embarked on a rash of projects’ flag off, yet the same man has not been able to tell Rivers people what are values of the projects and whether they are in the 2016 budget of the state. This is the height of deceit and recklessness, what a shame,” he said.

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