By Mark Lenu
Some villagers in Rivers State have commended their newly elected council chairmen for providing electricity for them which they said had helped to make their communities lively.
The local dwellers who hail from some communities in the Degema Local Government Area of the state told our correspondent that these current council chairmen are different from their predecessors especially in the area of power supply.
They said past chairmen used to provide electricity for their communities during elections to get their votes and refuse to continue after winning the election but the current chairmen didn’t toe the line of their predecessors.
“Though the power supply is not only what we need from our elected chairmen, it is good to still commend them for the good thing they have done. At least we see electricity almost every evening till the next morning and we like it,” they said.
Prioritizing the development of their areas has been a consistent urging on the elected chairmen in the state whom the Supreme Court had empowered with financial autonomy.
The chairmen came into office in early October 2024 after being declared the winners of the October 5 LG election which was conducted by the state Independent electoral commission.
The Action Peoples Party (APP) won 22 out of the 23 chairmanship seats, a victory that was attributed to Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s full and total endorsement of APP.
However, there are ongoing legal tussles in court, challenging the legality of the election that produced the chairmen and also moves to stop the chairmen from accessing—funds from the federal allocation.