The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction in Rivers State loyal to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has vehemently rejected the results of the recent local government election, describing it as an “exercise in futility” and vowing to challenge the outcome in court.<\/p>\n
The contentious local government poll, which took place on Saturday, saw the Action Peoples Party (APP) dominate the election, winning 22 out of the 23 chairmanship positions, with the Action Alliance securing one seat. In addition, APP won 314 of the 319 councillorship seats across the state\u2019s 23 local government areas (LGAs).<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Governor Sim Fubara swore in the newly elected council chairmen from the 23 LGAs, despite significant opposition from Wike\u2019s loyalists within the PDP. Naija News reports that Fubara\u2019s supporters had shifted allegiance to the APP after losing control of the PDP to Wike, further complicating the political dynamics in Rivers State.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Yowika, the state\u2019s PDP Publicity Secretary, stated that the party would not recognize the results and planned to challenge the election process in court. \u201cWe are pressing further through the courts to ensure that justice is done and seen to have been done,\u201d Yowika said. \u201cSo, we do not agree, nor do we recognize any swearing-in ceremony taking place today (Sunday) or tomorrow (Monday).\u201d<\/p>\n
Yowika underscored that the PDP had from the outset insisted that the local government elections should not proceed, referencing a Federal High Court judgment that prohibited the poll. The party views the state’s actions as a direct violation of the court\u2019s ruling, rendering the entire electoral process illegal.<\/p>\n
He remarked, \u201cEverything concerning that issue is illegal. We have made it clear that elections should not be held based on the Federal High Court judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu. Any action taken regarding the local government elections is ultimately futile because, as a country, we must abide by the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The controversy centers around the ruling of the Federal High Court, which had explicitly barred the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) from conducting the elections. Wike\u2019s PDP faction argues that the state government\u2019s decision to go ahead with the polls despite this ruling is a blatant disregard for the judiciary and the legal framework guiding elections in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Yowika further criticized the state’s decision to move forward with the election: \u201cThe law is clear, and it states that all actions must align with the judgment of the Federal High Court. The Government of the day has blatantly ignored that, which is why we are standing by our position. As a law-abiding party, we won\u2019t engage in any physical confrontation but will allow the judicial process to take its course.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PDP faction also staged a peaceful protest on the day of the election, demonstrating their belief that no valid election had taken place. “We had a protest on Saturday to clearly show that there was no election, and we continue to hold the position that no election occurred,” Yowika explained.<\/p>\n
According to Yowika, members of the PDP loyal to Wike visited the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) on the day of the election, only to find evidence supporting their claim that the election had not been properly conducted. \u201cThe world saw that there was no election. We stand by the Federal High Court ruling, which invalidated the entire process,\u201d Yowika said.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson condemned the election results as a \u201ccharade\u201d orchestrated by the state government and insisted that the PDP would not recognize the outcome. \u201cWhat the government did was unacceptable. As we have said before, we are a law-abiding party and will continue to stand by that principle,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The legal battle over the results is expected to intensify in the coming weeks, with the PDP loyalists to Wike preparing to take their case to the courts, seeking to annul the elections. As tensions rise between the Wike faction of the PDP and Fubara\u2019s newly aligned supporters in the APP, political observers in Rivers State are watching closely to see how this conflict will play out in the courts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction in Rivers State loyal to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has vehemently rejected the results of the recent local government election, describing it as an “exercise in futility” and vowing to challenge the outcome in court. The contentious local government poll, which took place on Saturday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50992,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50991\/revisions\/50992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}