Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, has increased the number of his newly appointed special assistants on political units to 200,000.
In his speech during the inauguration of the last batch of the 100,000 appointees at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Omagwa in Ikwerre Local government area Friday, the governor said he decided to increase the number to accommodate more people, who had shown willingness to work for him.
The first batch of about 45,000 assistants from Rivers South-East and Rivers West Senatorial districts were sworn-in by the governor on Thursday.
The appointment of the unprecedented number of aides was first announced by the state government on October 11 with an initial figure of 14,000.
The number was doubled to 28,000 the next day, and then to 50,000.
Governor Wike had earlier announced that the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Rivers State have discussed and agreed that the number of appointees as Special Assistants be increased to 100,000.
Their job is to send in honest feedbacks from the people at the grassroots to the state government
They are to communicate the feelings of the people towards the Wike administration through the 319 Liaison Officers at the Ward levels, who will then report to the 32 State Constituency Liaison Officers for transmission to the office of the Governor.
The 319 Wards Liaison Officers and 32 State Constituency Liaison Officers were sworn in earlier this week.
Speaking at the inauguration of the last batch of the 100,000 Special Assistants at the Adokiye Amiesimaka stadium, governor Wike said the appointment is part of the “stomach infrastructure” he promised to execute alongside the physical infrastructure of his administration.