Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
All the councillors of the 12 wards making up the Ekeremor Local Government Area have resolved to preserve the long standing agreement on the zoning of National Assembly offices between Sagbama and Ekeremor Local Government Areas.
The deputy leader of the House, who represents Ekeremor Ward 6, Mr Pimo Sylvester, said all the councillors from the local government area decided to oppose any candidate from Ekeremor in defence of the agreement power sharing between the people of the two councils.
He said that the agreement to rotate the Senate seat and that of the House of Rep between Sagbama and Ekeremor for a period of eight was beyond any political party to violate.
“We just had a meeting with the former Governor, Chief Henry Seriake Dickson, on his senatorial ambition. The point to note is that in this district, there is a long standing agreement on zoning of the national assembly positions.
“This was an agreement by the people, and it goes beyond political parties. This unwritten power sharing arrangement is for a period of eight years. This is the tenure of Sagbama, not Ekeremor.
“We are standing behind our former Governor who is from Sagbama and we shall oppose any person coming from Ekeremor because it is unjust and unfair. We want Chief Dickson to go the Senate to speak for the Ijaw nation. We believe in him, and fairness is on his side in this matter” he said.
In another development the leadership of the five wards that make up Constituency One in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State has also reiterated its commitment to the existing zoning arrangement.
Rising from a meeting the stakeholders in a communiqué signed Chief Martin Agbede and Mr Oyarede Ayaperebo, convener and co-convener respectively stated that the zoning arrangement is sacrosanct as it has afforded the two local governments to operate seamlessly without any rancour over the years in respect of the two positions in the National Assembly.
Furthermore, they recalled that only last month, leaders of all the political parties in the Senatorial District resolved unanimously to sustain the zoning arrangement to allow Sagbama Local Government Area to conclude the remaining single term of its two terms at the Senate and thereafter , Ekeremor will take its turn.
Consequently, they pledged their total support for the Senatorial Candidate from Sagbama Local Government Area as it was their legitimate turn to produce one.
They therefore, appealed to all indigenes of Ekeremor Local Government Area, no matter their political persuasion, to avoid any action that will negatively affect the existing cordial political understanding as it relates to the rotation of the two positions in the national assembly.