By Abiola Olawale
The Rivers State Local Government election has officially begun as many residents have begun to troop to their respective polling units to vote for the candidate of their choice.
This is as the Rivers State Electoral Commission (RSIEC) declared that it is using the authentic Voters Register obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the local government council elections in the state.
The Presiding Officer for Unit 8, Ward 3 Isiodu Community, Emohua Local Government Area, Azunda Fulfill, made this known while speaking to the press.
He said the process was peaceful and that the voter register being used is authentic.
Azunda said: “The process is going fine. People are voting. For now, there is no issue. We are doing the work calmly.
“The voter register we have is the same thing as the one used for the 2023 election. The voter’s card and the register are tallied. It is the correct voter register.”
The New Diplomat reports that this is coming after a federal high court in Abuja barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the 2023 voter 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 the 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).
