The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), loyal to Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, has rejected the results of the recent local government election, labeling it an exercise in futility and pledging to contest the outcome in court.
In the Saturday council election, the Action Peoples Party, APP (the platform Fubara’s loyalists contested under) claimed victory, winning 22 of the 23 chairmanship positions, while a candidate from the Action Alliance secured one seat. The APP also dominated the councillorship races, winning 314 out of 319 seats across the 23 local government areas in the state.
Following these results, Fubara swore in the newly elected council chairmen on Sunday. After losing control of the PDP to Wike, Fubara’s supporters transitioned to the APP.
Commenting on the election, the PDP’s state Publicity Secretary, Kenneth Yowika, affirmed that the party would challenge the election results in court.
‘’We are pressing further through the courts to ensure that justice is done and seen to have been done. So, we do not agree nor do we recognize if any swearing-in is taking place today (Sunday) or tomorrow (Monday),” he told The PUNCH.
Yowika said from the beginning, the ruling party in the state had insisted on the Federal High Court judgment barring the conduct of the council poll, pointing out that what the state government did was illegal.
Yowika said, “First of all everything concerning that issue is illegal. We have said it clearly that elections should not be held, you know, relying on the Federal High Court judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu.
“And I had said before this time that any action taken regarding the issue of the local government will be futile because if we say we are a country that stands by the rule of law, then we should not be doing things that are contrary to the law.
“The law had said do things that will be in line with the judgment of the Federal High Court and the Government of the day has not obeyed that.
“So, we are a law-abiding party. We are not going to come out physically to begin to fight. We had a protest yesterday (Saturday) clearly showing that there was no election.
“And we stand by that decision that we have taken that there was no election, and we wait for the judiciary and other arms of government that should put things in proper perspective to act. We continue to hold on that there was no election.”
Continuing, he said, “We visited the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission yesterday and clearly, the world saw that there was no election there. So, we stand by the ruling of the Federal High Court which said that that election should not go on.
“Well, they went ahead to do whatever charade people saw and that is not acceptable by the Peoples Democratic Party. Like we said we are a law-abiding party, and we stand to remain that.”
