By Abiola Olawale
A faction within the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the outcome of Saturday’s local government election, which was held in the state.
The faction declared that the election, which was held across the 23 local government areas of Rivers State, is illegal.
The APC publicity secretary in Rivers State, Ikenga Chibike, who spoke with the press, described the just concluded election as a mirage, saying it was a “cooked-up result”.
According to him, no election was held in the state.
He said: “As far as APC is concerned in Rivers State, there was no election on Saturday, so if anybody is announcing anything, it is a cooked-up result.
“The law remains the law. It says that if RSIEC must conduct a proper election, it must follow the due process,” he declared.
He said the party decided to boycott the election to “obey the judgement from the Federal High Court which barred the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services, DSS, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from going ahead with the election.
“The court had also declared that every action taken before this time is null and void. We are standing with that judgement so we did not participate,” he concluded.
This is coming after the Chief Election Officer of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), Justice Adolphus Enebeli, on Saturday declared that the Action Peoples Party (APP) won the chairmanship positions in 22 out of the 23 LGAs.
The election was held amid several controversies due to conflicting Court judgements.
It would be recalled that a federal high court in Abuja had barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the 2023 voters register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC).
The court also barred the inspector-general of police and the Department of State Services (DSS) from providing security for the exercise.
However, in another ruling, the Federal High Court in Rivers State gave its full judicial nod to the RSIEC to proceed as scheduled with its planned conduct of local government Council election in the State.
The presiding judge, Justice I.P.C. Igwe declared that there’s no going back on the Rivers Local Government election on October 5th as scheduled.
Justice Igwe gave this while ruling on the suit instituted by the Action Peoples Party(APP).
