Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State says the local election slated for 5 October will produce a new, people-oriented political structure in the state.
Mr Fubara’s spokesperson, Nelson Chukwudi, quoted the governor as saying this when he received members of the Simplicity Movement in Government House, Port Harcourt, on Tuesday.
The Simplicity Movement is a pro-Fubara political group in Rivers.
The group was led by Sobomabo Jackrich, a candidate of the National Rescue Movement in the 2023 governorship election.
Responding to the group’s public support, the governor promised to continue to “defend the integrity” of the state in the face of ongoing political challenges.
Governor Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, the FCT minister, have been engaged in a protracted fight over controlling the political structure in Rivers.
“We must defend the dignity of our state. We must ensure that the commonwealth of this state belongs to everyone,” the governor said during the political group’s visit.
“We believe that if we put the interest of the state above personal gains, we would have addressed the challenges associated with crime, hunger and unemployment.”
He urged the electorate to freely participate in the local election.
The governor also said that the election, when concluded, would help his administration chart the “second phase of its struggle”.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Fubara insisted that the local elections would go on despite a court order against it.
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday barred the Independent National Electoral Commission from releasing voters’ registers to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission.
The case was instituted by the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State under the leadership of Tony Okocha, the former chairperson of the party caretaker committee in the state, who was sacked by a court.
Governor Fubara’s loyalists are contesting the election under the Action Peoples Party platform after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), under whose platform Mr Fubara became governor, said it would not participate in the exercise.
Mr Wike controls the PDP structure in Rivers.
(NAN)
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