The All Progressives Congress chapter in Rivers State has criticised the state’s electoral body’s intentions to hold local government elections on August 30 and warned that doing so could violate a Supreme Court decision and deny citizens their right to vote.
In accordance with the Supreme Court’s February ruling on the use of updated voter registration for elections, Rivers state APC spokesperson Darlington Nwauju stated that the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission ought to postpone the polls until the Independent National Electoral Commission has finished its continuous voter registration in the state.
“I do not think you’re supposed to have an election in the middle of voter registration, given that many who have attained voting age this year will be alienated or disenfranchised,” Nwauju said, accusing RSIEC of selectively adopting decisions from the dissolved 6th commission led by Justice Adolphus Enebeli (retd).
The APC stance is in addition to growing resistance from well-known politicians and civil society organisations, as well as an ongoing legal action to stop the experiment.
Under the state’s present emergency rule, stakeholders had contended that neither RSIEC nor Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), the state’s sole administrator, had the authority to hold the LG poll.
The administrator and RSIEC have maintained their position that the August 30 date cannot be changed in spite of the concerns.
Godfrey Woke, the RSIEC Commissioner in charge of Political Parties’ Affairs, Monitoring, and Security, stated that the voter registration that was acquired in March is still valid and that the commission has already started to vet applicants for councillor, chairman, and vice-chairmanships.
In an interview with newsmen, Woke said, “The date for the local government elections in Rivers State is sacrosanct. We are not shifting from what we are doing,” Woke said, stressing that the timetable was drawn in line with the RSIEC Act.
“We (RSIEC) are following our guidelines and our timetable, and we have not deviated from the timetable according to the RSIEC Act. This timetable was adjusted because the date for the election was changed because RSIEC was not able to conduct an election at that time. And the law also allows us to change the date to a better date, and that is what we have just done. We cannot change it again. We had already obtained our voters register before INEC came up with that.”
Following this, the Sole Administrator insisted that RSIEC was authorised to conduct the vote by the National Assembly, which took over legislative authority in the state following the declaration of emergency rule, through his Senior Special Adviser on Media, Hector Igbikiowubo.
“When people talk about legality, are they wishing away the powers of the National Assembly? RSIEC has the legal basis to do what it is doing. You can’t wish that away,” he said.
He added, “What we must understand is that RSIEC wasn’t cleared by the Administrator. RSIEC was cleared by the National Assembly. Whenever there is an emergency rule, like we have now in the state, you find out that legislative powers rest with the National Assembly.
“If you look at it holistically, you will see that the National Assembly has acted within its powers, and from there on, RSIEC has the legal basis to do what it is doing. You can’t wish that away.”
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