By Mike Odiakose, Abuja

A former Minister of Women Affairs, Iyom Josephine Anenih, has tasked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Anambra State Congress Committee to ensure fair and credible election during the congress.

Speaking in Awka after the State Congress was postponed over a logistics problem, the former Minister lamented that Anambra PDP members have experienced painful imposition of executives in the past that were orchestrated by some Abuja-based politicians.

According to her, these politicians capitalize their proximity to Wadata House national secretariat of PDP in Abuja to peddle false stories about the security situation in Anambra and at the same time tamper with the list of delegates that are supposed to participate in PDP congresses in the state.

While assuring the State Congress Committee that Anambra State is “peaceful and secured,” Anenih, who is a former National Woman Leader of the PDP, stressed that members of the party are eager to participate in the Congress that will see the emergence of true representatives if the party members

Her words: “I want to thank God for granting the Anambra State Congress Committee led by His Excellency Ifeanyi Ossai a safe journey to Anambra. I thank the Committee members who disregarded the negative news about Anambra that are being spread by detractors to demarket Anambra, and came to Anambra to see a peaceful and hospitable State.

“I urge this Committee to be steadfast in discharging their mandate of conducting a free and fair election to elect a State Executive Committee.

“In the past, elements who are hell bent on distabilising the Party and making sure there is no elected executive structure in the State, would take advantage of their proximity to Wadata Plaza because they live in Abuja, go to Wadata Plaza and tell all sorts of lies about Anambra PDP, and influence the people in Wadata Plaza to take decisions that are detrimental to our progress here.

Iyom Anenih, who is also a member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) added, “This time around it will not happen because the Executive at Wadata Plaza have known the truth and are determined to do the right thing.

“I thanked the National Auditor who is one of us for speaking up for us and letting his colleagues at the NWC know the truth about the situation on ground.

“I asked the Congress Committee to write their names in gold as a Committee that no one is able to manipulate as they used to do in the past.

“I pledged full cooperation of authentic and dedicated Anambra State PDP members in Anambra with the Committee to make their job of conducting a free and fair election easy and seamless.

“I prayed for their safe travels as they return and come back on a new agreed date.”

From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja

Kogi State Governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo has sworn in newly elected chairmen and vice chairmen of the 21 local government areas in Kogi State with a charge to be dedicated in serving the people they represent.

At a ceremony held at the Banquet Hall in Government House Lokoja, the elected chairmen and vice chairmen from the 21 local government areas were seated as early as 8.

Ododo who presided over the swearing-in ceremony urged the new chairmen to sustain the tempo of development at the grassroots level by embarking on projects and programmes that will improve the lives of the people.

He charged the new local government chairmen to ensure security of lives and property and key into signature programmes of the administration in the areas of health, agriculture, social welfare and empowerment initiatives to transform the lives of the people in their respective local government areas.

The Governor who described the local government as the most important tier of government and the closest to the people also enjoined the new council chairmen to ensure that the people are carried along in all their activities and to promote inclusion of all stakeholders in the decision making process.

He noted that the local government administration should not only be seen but must be felt by the people in line with the policy of his administration to bring governance closer to the people.

Ododo also called on the new local government chairmen to be transparent and accountable in running the affairs of the local government, stressing that they must see their election as an opportunity to justify the autonomy of the local government administration by according priorities to matters that have direct positive impact on the lives of the people at the grassroots.

In response, the chairman of Yagba West local government area, Tosin Olokun, who spoke on behalf of the 21 local government chairmen assured of their commitment to complement the efforts of the state government by embarking on projects and programmes that will transform the lives of the people at the grassroots.

He also promised to unite the people irrespective of political differences in line with the agenda of the state government under Governor Ododo to unite the people of the state and focus more on development.

Gov. Alex Otti of Abia has urged Nigerian youths to join politics to decide their fate and make a difference.

Otti gave the advice during Church Service at The Transforming Church (TTC), on Sunday in Abuja.

He explained that every society needs the leadership it deserves, saying: “If you sit back and say politics is for politicians, the politicians will decide everything for you.

“I am challenging all the young people here.

Quoting Psalms 62:11, the governor said that power belongs to God and advised the youths against shying away from power.

“You can make a lot of changes if you have power, and that is what politics will give you to create the changes you want to see in the lives of your people.

“This is because, holding a political office affords people the opportunity to affect the lives of more people than one can imagine,” he said.

Otti said that he left the banking sector in 2014 and joined politics to make a difference by doing things differently.

He said that as the governor of Abia, he could affect the entire population of the state by just one action.

He called on Christians not to pray alone but compliment it with hard work, adding that that way, their dreams and aspirations would come through.

During the sermon, the lead pastor of the church, Rev. Sam Oye, who spoke on the goodness of God, called on Nigerians to keep their faith strong and not to give up on their dreams.

Reading from Psalm 119:68, Oye stressed the need for people to learn how to be good to others.

He thanked the Otti for visiting the church and reiterated the commitment of the church in praying for those in positions of leadership. (NAN)