The Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), has been urged to clarify his recent appointments of Local Government Sole Administrators and other officials.
Atedo Peterside, President of the ANAP Foundation and Founder of IBTC Bank, stated that the Rivers sole administrator has no authority to come from Cross River State and exacerbate the already tense situation in Rivers State.
He accused Ibas of appointing individuals he described as “riff raffs” to positions of honour in Rivers, challenging him to explain the rationale behind his appointments.
Peterside warned that the people of Rivers will not passively observe as someone from another state undermines their resources and inflames tensions.
In an interview with Arise, he remarked that the Sole Administrator either misunderstood his responsibilities or lacks comprehension of his role. He added that instead of working towards stability and healing in a volatile situation, Ibas may be unintentionally aggravating the conflict.
“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 with a view to helping to achieve stability and healing, he might be inadvertently adding fuel to the fire.
“On a given basis, he’s made some appointments. First of all, he emerged in an irregular manner. I would say the executive 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 Representatives, 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 at the Rivers State Electoral Commission. He went in there, removed people, made appointments. He then also went to all the Local Governments and appointed Sole Administrators.
“So, a man who himself probably has had no proper mandate in a serious country with a serious legal system now decides to add insult to injury. 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 appointments? 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 and 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. 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 Rivers 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 stated.
