Atedo Peterside, President of the ANAP Foundation and Founder of IBTC Bank, has challenged the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Retired Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, to justify his recent appointments of Local Government Sole Administrators and other officials.
Peterside cautioned that the Sole Administrator, who hails from Cross River State, has no right to exacerbate the already tense situation in Rivers State.
He accused Ibas of appointing “riff raffs” to positions of honor in Rivers State and demanded that he explain his selection process to the Nigerian public.
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Peterside warned that the people of Rivers State will not passively allow an individual from another state to mismanage their resources and worsen the existing conflict.
Speaking on Arise TV on Thursday, he suggested that the Sole Administrator has either misunderstood his mandate or lacks a clear understanding of his role.
Peterside argued that instead of contributing to stability and reconciliation in a volatile situation, Ibas is potentially aggravating the problem.
“You see, in every situation, I always believe in giving people time to tell us who they are, what they’re about in effect, before you rush to judgment. When this Sole administrator was appointed, please check everywhere. I never made any comment about him, his competence, his integrity or anything. So what has changed?
“What has changed is that I think the Sole administrator either misread his brief or he has no understanding of what his role is. And instead of coming to an inflamed situation to help to achieve stability and healing, he might be inadvertently adding fuel to the fire.
“A given basis, he’s made some appointments. First of all, he emerged in an irregular manner. I would say the executives were misguided. So he’s a product of the executive being misguided legally, and then the legislator will be introducing rascality to use a voice vote to confirm his appointment.
“That, we all know, a voice vote does not make any sense. It can never prove two-thirds, because even in the House of Reps, we don’t even know how many people were in the room. I saw the TV pictures. So here is the man who came in, knows he’s on shifty ground, and what has he done? You know, they say, make some appointments, and I’ll tell you who you are. He’s made some appointments, even the Rivers State Electoral Commission. He went in there, removed people, and made appointments. He then also went to all the LGs, appointed, Sole administrators,” he said.
According to Peterside, a man who himself probably has had no proper mandate in a serious country with a serious legal system now decides to add insult upon injury, adding that, “Instead of simply leaving local governments in the hands of the most senior, full-time staff and even reading them the riot act, to do the correct thing, he now goes to superimpose people.
“I challenge him to tell the nation through what process he chose those he appointed. Through what process did he make the appointment? Did he advertise the positions? Did he call for nominations? Did he search Rivers State for the most competent, skilled persons of high integrity?
“Like I’ve already said, we know ourselves in Rivers State, you make many appointments from the people you’ve chosen. I can tell you who you are with due respect for the people he appointed, in my personal opinion, they are riff-raffs.
“So a man leaves Cross River State comes to Rivers State in an inflamed situation. I challenge him to tell the nation what process he used in making the appointments.
“Did he choose people that he knew personally when he was in the Navy? Who did he ask for nominations? When did he produce some of these riff raffs from? You’ve got an electoral commission, and you bring in some people that you chose through a method that you can’t explain?
“Please, I challenge him to explain how he chose those persons. So do you want us to accept the elections conducted by some of those people that he chose when we don’t even know how they are mixed? And I think that is disrespectful to the people of River State. He should be called to order immediately.
“There should be no mistake whatsoever that we will sit down forever and accept persons being appointed to lord over our state and our resources,” he said.
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