BY TEMI BOYO
THE Warri North Local Government Areal Chairman, Hon. Festus Ashima has harped on the need for peaceful electoral process in the forthcoming Tisun community elections.
Ashima made this known in an emergency security meeting held with security agents and members of the said community at his office in the council secretariat, Koko.
The said meeting was convened following a tip-off by officials of security agencies in the local government area that some aspirants in the forthcoming Tisun Community Trust election had vowed to make the electoral process chaotic and bloody.
Ashima noted that peace in the local government area was non-negotiable as such the people of Tisun community should get it right in their Community Trust election process, adding that, they should adhere to due process by first constituting a legitimate elders council that will in turn conduct the inauguration of a new Trust Executive in the community when duly elected.
He emphasized that, failing to constitute a legitimate elders council would result to incessant litigation, which would render the forthcoming elections without the approval of the council of elders null and void.
While citing an incident in Zamfara politics where a political party lost it all when it got it wrong in its primary elections, Ashima warned that the law must take its course in the community’s electoral process.
On his part, the outgoing Tisun Community Chairman, Mr. David Odeli disclosed that he was eager to step down as Tisun Trust Chairman as his tenure would expire in three months’ time, adding that as he would not want to stay a day longer in office.
He affirmed that, going by the community’s constitution, a proper constitution was one of the prerequisite for any legitimate election into the community trust executives.
A former Speaker of Delta House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chief Kent Omatsone, who was present during the meeting, reiterated the need for the constitution of the community’s elders’ council to ensure that every electoral and selection processes to leadership positions in the community is legitimate.
While calling for the non-imposition of candidate on the people during the electoral process by all stakeholders present during the meeting, a consensus decision was reached approving the turn of Eruware family stock to produce the next community chairman.
The meeting ended peacefully with a mandate by the council boss that the members of the community carried out his insistence on the constitution of a legitimate.
