Rivers crisis: Go to court, Fubara our hero – PDP carpets Wike

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chapter in Rivers State has taken aim at Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike for his recent rants on the state’s just ended local government poll.

ZINGTIE reports that Wike voiced his displeasure with Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s decision to hold the poll on Saturday in contravention of a court ruling in an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday.

Remember that in a ruling, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, or RSIEC, had broken the law by failing to publish the required 90-day notice prior to announcing the election date.

The Independent National Electoral Commission was prohibited by the court from releasing the voter register to RSIEC for the conduct of the election.

Additionally, Justice Lifu disallowed the Department of State Service, or DSS, and the Inspector General of Police from handling poll security.

The ruling came after the state chapter of the APC filed a lawsuit against the judge, criticizing RSIEC’s decision to reschedule the polls to October 5.

Governor Fubara ordered that the election be held on Saturday, anyway.

In 22 of the state’s 23 LGAs, the governor’s supporters who ran for chairmanships on the platform of the Action Peoples Party, or APP, prevailed.

The state has documented numerous instances of violent altercations between Wike and Fubara supporters both during and following the election.

Arsonists who are said to be Wike’s supporters set fire to the Ikwerre Local Government secretariat on Monday.

Following actions by certain political thugs to deny the freshly elected council leaders access to their offices, there were gunfire at a few other secretariats.

In his initial public response to the disputes, Wike charged Fubara with undermining Nigerian democracy by disobeying the court’s ruling.

The former governor also said that Fubara’s action in ousting Hon. Martin Amaewhule as Speaker of the House of Assembly was the catalyst for the never-ending turmoil.

But, the state’s PDP quickly intervened, telling the Minister and his backers to file a lawsuit if they were unhappy with the election results.

Sydney Gbara, the PDP publicity secretary in Rivers State, questioned why those who were enthusiastically advocating for the election were now against it.

He said, “We are aware that no court judgement can stop an electoral process. What we know is that if you are not okay with an election, you can approach the court after it is conducted. So they should go to court.

“Let me take Nigerians back, conducting the local government election was one of the items on the presidential peace proclamation made by President Bola Tinubu in 2023. They (Wike and his supporters) have been willing to see the election conducted.

“At one point they even instructed the assembly that if Fubara refuses to conduct the election, he should be impeached. It is now surprising that when the RSIEC drew out the timetable for the election, they are now doing everything possible to stop it.

“This is where the conversation should start from and not whether there was a court judgement or not.

“In fact, it got to a point where the assembly elongated the tenure of the previous LG Chairmen and that was the first of its kind in the history of Nigerian democracy. Now the governor said he is ready for the election and the same people are now speaking from the other side of their mouths, saying the election should not be held.

“Where has Governor Fubara gone wrong? The Supreme Court has given judgement prohibiting caretaker committees and said every state should have elected LG Chairmen and they have a time frame of 90 days or else the state will not get allocation.

“Governor Fubara is just being obedient to the Supreme Court judgment. Anyone who wants to truncate the process does not mean well for Rivers people.”

Sydney Gbara described Fubara as a hero, stressing that “he will continue to be our hero for standing firm to ensure that democracy stands in Rivers State.

“Innocent people were killed in cold blood all in a bid to frustrate the electoral process. The truth is that they came late because Rivers People have decided to move on with Fubara.”

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