LG Elections: APP wins 22 chairmanship seats in Rivers

The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) has declared the chairmanship candidates of the Action Peoples Party (APP) as winners of local government election in 22 of the 23 local government areas in the state.

The chairperson of the commission, Adolfus Enebeli, a retired judge in the state, made the declaration on Saturday in Port Harcourt.

The video of the declaration is posted on Facebook.

Mr Enebeli said the results were still being collated in Etche Local Government Area.

“About 18 of the registered political parties resident in Rivers State took part in the election.

“In keeping with extant regulations, the commission displayed voters register in all the 6,866 polling units in the state.”

Mr Enebeli said the commission remained unbowed and ensured that the 5 October election was sacrosanct, especially after the Supreme Court judgment in July and the judgment of Justice I.P.C Igwe of the Rivers State High Court.

“It is heartening that I stand before you today to affirm the smooth, free, fair and credible and transparent, all inclusive, successful, violence-free and most treasured conduct of Rivers State local government election despite all odds.”

He described results collation as “painstaking.”

The video did not show the commission declare the results of the councillorship election.

Background

The local election was held in the state despite the police withdrawal of security for the exercise.

The police said they acted in compliance with a Federal High Court order but RSIEC chairperson said the commission was buoyed by the Supreme Court judgment and that of I.P.C Igwe of Rivers State High Court, a statement that underscores how conflicting judicial pronouncements contribute to the raging political crisis in the oil-rich state.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which Siminalayi Fubara was elected governor, boycotted the election, forcing Mr Fubara’s loyalists to seek an alternative in a relatively unknown APP, whose candidates eventually won the 22 chairmanship seats so far declared.

Rivers State has witnessed political turmoil after Mr Fubara parted ways with his erstwhile “political god-father”, Nyesom Wike, who helped him to become governor.

Mr Wike, a PDP member serving as a FCT minister in the APC-led federal government, has refused to surrender the PDP political structure in the state to Mr Fubara, apparently the cause of their political rift.

Mr Wike tried unsuccessfully to stop the election, including mobilising his supporters to protest against the exercise.