The Action Peoples Party has mocked the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State for pulling out of the forthcoming local government elections in the state scheduled for October 5, 2024, saying the action shows fear of defeat.
The APP, which recently received into its folds LG caretaker chairmen who are loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, vows to win all the 23 local government areas of the state and the councillor ships positions.
The Chairman of the Rivers State PDP, Aaron Chukwuemeka, had at a stakeholders’ meeting at the party’s secretariat in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, said the ruling party would not participate in the council polls.
Chukwuemeka said the PDP was awaiting the outcome of a case filed by the All Progressives Congress led by Chief Tony Okocha against the conduct of the elections.
Chukwuemeka also took a swipe at the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, alleging that the electoral umpire did not extend any invitation to the PDP as it did to other parties in the state for its stakeholders meeting where the date of the election and other issues were agreed upon.
But speaking at a senatorial campaign in the Ahoada East Local Government Area on Wednesday evening, the Rivers APP Chairman, Sunny Wokekoro, said the PDP was being clever by half and merely giving flimsy excuses.
Wokekoro said, “On the 5th of October, the Action Peoples Party is going to clinch the councillorship election in all the 319 wards. We are also going to win the chairmanship positions in all the 23 local government areas of the state. Nobody can stop us; victory will be ours because the people are with us and God is with us.
“So we have come to you today to present our manifesto while other parties are complaining here and there and some of them are waiting for an imaginary court order to stop RSIEC from conducting elections.
“Unfortunately for them, their lawyers did not tell them that there is no law in the land that stops RSIEC from conducting any elections. When RSIEC came out with a timetable for the election, even parties that were accusing people of contesting the election, they came to say there was a court case somewhere, they were waiting for a court case, a court case that they did not institute.
“There is no law in this land that stops RSIEC or INEC from conducting elections. It is either you are ready for election or you are not ready. Their make-believe popularity would have been exposed if they had shown and they would have been put to shame if they ever came out for this election.”
The APP chairman boasted that “Whether the PDP participate in this election or not – they have chickened out like lily-livered people – we are ready for this election and we will win.”
Our correspondent reports that the sacked Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC in Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha, had during a news briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday said the LG election would not hold following the suit he filed in court against RSIEC.
But the RSIEC Chairman, Justice Adolphus Enebeli (retd.), while speaking at training for staff of the commission, said the October 5 date for the polls was sacrosanct, insisting that there was neither any judgment nor impediment stopping the state electoral umpire from conducting the elections.
On Thursday, the RSIEC Chairman unveiled the voters’ register for the October 5 LGA poll at a ceremony in the Ohio/Akpor Local Government Area.
Enebeli also disclosed that the commission had received the voters’ register from INEC before any legal issues came up.
He stated, “The 6th commission under my charge, we are very proactive. A wise man can never be taken unawares.
“We (RSIEC) are proactive, we follow due process. Even before the cases went to court we had liaised with INEC, the correspondences are there. That is it. It is the gift of patience and planning.
“I’m not a last-minute man; I plan ahead. And so, all these things were concluded since last year; the correspondences are there.
“The display of register will be carried out in all the 6, 866 polling units in the 23 local government areas of Rivers State.”
He said RSIEC would partner with security agencies to ensure a seamless exercise on October 5.
Enebeli assured voters, traditional rulers and politicians that the state electoral umpire would not take sides with any political party.
Enebeli added, “We as a commission have constantly pledged and demonstrated our resolve to offer a level playing field to all the parties and their candidates. I’m sure members of all the political parties can attest to the fact that we have been open and fair in our dealings with them.
“Let me assure you and the good people of Rivers State that your votes must count. We have pledged to this in our oath of office,” he said.
