By Ignatius Chukwu
The fragile situation in Rivers State may experience big shocks in the coming days over whether or not local council elections should hold this Saturday, October 5, 2024.
This is as whereas the camp loyal to the FCT Minister (Nyesom Wike) led by Chief Tony Okocha says there will never be an election on Saturday, Gov Sim Fubara insists it must hold.
Broadcast takes the matter beyond the Rubicon:
Any hopes that the governor may back off and seek political solution to the election matter seemed to end when he made a broadcast Wednesday, October 2, 2024, saying no going back.
Gov Sim Fubara thus affirmed the local council elections scheduled for this Saturday, October 5, 2024, would surely hold.
Based on these two different declarations, the stage seems set for a collision.
The Wike camp represented by Tony Okocha, the Caretaker Committee chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) sacked by the court, has based its declaration on the judgement of a federal high court in Abuja which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and all security agencies to steer clear of the Rivers LGA elections, saying legal requirements were not met. That was the prayer of the scrapped CTC and the Wike camp.
On the other hand, Gov Fubara said he based his declaration on the judgment of the Supreme Court which ordered all LGAs in Nigeria to end CTC system followed by a FG order that all CTC must end before October 15, 2024.
Fubara in the broadcast argued that the judgment in SC/CV/343/2024 of July 11, 2024, effectively outlawed the administration of their local government councils with unelected officers and made several orders including the immediate stoppage of statutory allocations to Local Government Councils without democratically elected local government councils.
“Following Mr President’s intervention, the period for compliance with the Supreme Court’s judgment was graciously extended by three months, which will expire on the 15 of October 2024.
“On the strength of these positive developments, I directed the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) to take definite steps to conduct local government elections for the 23 local Government Councils of Rivers State.
“Acting per this directive the RSIEC has since fixed and concluded all arrangements to conduct the Local Government Council election on Saturday 5th October 2024.
“The legal impetus of RSIEC to conduct the local government elections was further strengthened by the judgment of the Rivers State High Court in Suit No: PHC/2696/CS/2024 delivered on the 4th of September 2024, which positively directed the Governor of Rivers State, the Government of Rivers State and the RSIEC to conduct the scheduled local government elections on the 5th of October 2025 using the 2023 Independent National Electoral Commission’s Voters Register already in the custody of RSIEC.”
He said RVSIEC is ready to conduct the election, and that it must go on. “As of today, 17 out of 18 registered political parties, including the All Progressives Congress, have expressly and actively demonstrated their willingness to participate by filling candidates with RSIEC for the election.
“As of today, over 10 States in Nigeria have conducted Local Government Council Elections using the 2023 INEC Voters’ Register since the Supreme Court’s judgment and Rivers State cannot be an exception.
“As the Governor of Rivers State, I swore to uphold the Constitution of Nigeria and abide by the rule of law and the principles of democracy.
“Any failure on our part not to conduct the Local Government election would be a clear disobedience of the Supreme Court’s mandatory order that no State Government must administer the Local Government Councils in Nigeria with unelected officers with the attendant consequence of the State and the people being denied the statutory allocations due to the 23 local government areas of the State.”
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