Appointment Of Aides Support Strategy For Vote-buying – ZLP

The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in Rivers State has described the recent decision of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike to appoint 100,000 special assistants as an advanced vote-buying technique and a support strategy to the recently signed Executive Order 21.

ZLP, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday by its governorship candidate, Rt. Hon. Leyii Kwanee, said the Executive Order 21 now serves as a tool to monopolise the physical political space and exclude opposition parties from participation in the traditional medium where political parties attract votes through campaigns designed to sell their programmes and policies to the voters.

The statement by Kwanee, who is also a former deputy speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to the media interview granted by Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, today where he told the panel of television journalists that he would increase the appointment of special advisers, special assistants and liaison officers to a whopping 100,000 people.

“With the continued escalation of the figures, we do not know what the final numbers would be with the increase on a six hourly basis!

“We submit that a government has the power to make appointments. However, where same is made without disclosing the identities of the so-called governor’s special assistants, special advisers and liaison officers at the wards and local government areas levels, they would raise eyebrows and call for concern among the citizens of the state.

“This is particularly so where the corresponding job description for these mass of appointments remains unknown to Rivers’ people and other major stakeholders in the state.

“Moreover, where this is coming from is a government with the poorest records in history in human capacity development of Rivers’ people in the state’s civil service.”