The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission has fixed 5 October for the conduct of local elections in the state.
The Chairperson of the election commission, Adolphus Enebeli, announced this at a “stakeholders’ meeting” in Port Harcourt on Monday, Channels Television reported.
Mr Enebeli, at the meeting, said that it was time to respond to calls for the conduct of local elections following the expiration of the tenure of the former elected council chairpersons and councillors.
The announcement of the election date came less than two weeks after Governor Siminalayi Fubara inaugurated caretaker committees for the 23 local councils in the state following the expiration of the three-year tenure of the former officials.
Contending issues
Who runs the affairs of the local councils in the oil-rich state has been one of the contending issues between Governor Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who is now the FCT minister.
Messrs Fubara and Wike are battling each other over the control of the political structure in the state, particularly at the grassroots.
The 23 former chairpersons of the local councils in the state whose tenure expired last month were elected during Mr Wike’s administration. And 21 out of the 23 of them are loyal to minister.
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To ensure that Mr Wike retains control of the political structure at the local level in Rivers, the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers in the state legislature amended the Local Government Administration Law and extended the tenure of the elected officials by six months, in a situation where the Rivers State Government failed to conduct local elections.
The amended law did not receive Governor Fubara’s assent and was later set aside by a Rivers State High Court. The court also set aside all the resolutions made by pro-Wike lawmakers from last December that their seats were declared vacant following their defection from the PDP to the APC.
The court also restrained the lawmakers from parading themselves as members of the Rivers House of Assembly.
Dissatisfied with the court order, the pro-Wike lawmakers filed an appeal, but the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt, declined to reverse the decision of the lower court.
The Court of Appeal, instead, ordered both the pro-Wike lawmakers and the Fubara-backed three-person Rivers assembly to maintain the “present status quo” pending the determination of the appeal.
READ ALSO: EDITORIAL: The Rivers Storm: Time to crush political godfatherism
Relying on the order of the Court of Appeal, the former council chairpersons refused to vacate their office, a development that triggered violent clashes between supporters of Governor Fubara and that of Mr Wike, leading to the death of two persons, including a police officer.
The inspector general of police, to prevent a breakdown of law and order, ordered the police to take over the 23 council secretariats in the state, pending when the Court of Appeal deliver judgment in the matter.
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