August 31, (THEWILL) — The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, overcame last-minute legal and constitutional hurdles from aggrieved members of the public and conducted the poll for the 23 vacant chairmanship and councillorship seats in the 23 local government areas of the state amid predictions that the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, will sweep the polls.
The state electoral commission cleared 16 political parties for the poll, but only two were active participants. Those cleared to participate were the Peoples Democratic Party, the APC, the Labour Party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the Zenith Party, the Accord Party, the African Action Congress, the Action People’s Party, and the Social Democratic Party.
Others are the Action Alliance, Youth Party, Young Progressive Party, Action Democratic Party, New Nigerian People’s Party, Peoples Redemption Party, African Democratic Party, National Rescue Movement, and the Allied People’s Party. However, only the PDP and APC participated fully, and even then, unequally.
PDP fielded only three chairmanship candidates, while the APC presented 20 chairmanship candidates across the state’s 23 LGAs. PDP fielded candidates in only three LGAs, namely, Obio/Akpo, Port Harcourt City, and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni where Dr. Gift Worlu, Allwell Ihunda and Chukwu Ogbugu participated, respectively. For the APC, candidates who are mostly allies of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike took the slots in all the 23 LGAs.
They included Confidence Deko for Gokana LGA, Dr. Chidi Lloyd for Emohua LGA, Obari Ollormate for Eleme LGA, Akuro Tobins for Okrika LGA, and Dr. Thomas Bari-ara. Others like PRP, YPP and APP have councill orship candidates in some LGAs.
What appeared to have happened with the other candidates on the platforms of other political parties is that some deals were struck with the APC to make the opposition party have a smooth ride at the polls. Candidates from the various political parties on the platform of All Party Candidates reportedly visited the APC Secretariat on Tuesday night and stepped down for candidates of the Okocha-led APC.
Commenting on the development, Okocha said, “Over 50 cleared candidates by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), who are billed for the August 30 council polls from other political parties, visited our secretariat and announced their withdrawal from the race.”
Analysts described the development as part of the ongoing political realignments “engineered by Okocha and his close ally, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to push the “Renewed Hope Agenda’ in Rivers State ahead of the 2027 elections.”
So, the legal and constitutional moves to stop the polls from being held failed. Civil Society Organisations in the state had disagreed over the legitimacy of the polls. But the State High Court in Port Harcourt legitimised it, having dismissed a motion seeking to halt the local council elections.
In a suit filed against the conduct of the election by a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Williams Abayomi-Stanley, against President Bola Tinubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), the presiding Judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo, ruled that the application lacked merit and dismissed it. However, the court granted a motion for substituted service to the defendants and its chairman.
Abayomi-Stanley sought an interpretation of a section of the RSIEC law and the Constitution of Nigeria, specifically on whether the President has the legal powers to appoint a chairman and members of the RSIEC to conduct local council elections in the state. It failed to fly.
Justice Stephen Jumbo dismissed the suit and directed that the council elections should proceed as scheduled. The case has been adjourned till September 10, 2025, for a hearing on the substantive suit.
In vain did a former All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the 2015 House of Assembly election in Port Harcourt Constituency 3, Chima Nnokam, and four others file a suit at the Rivers State High Court, urging it to declare the local council election as unconstitutional.
Also, the state chapter of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), which insisted that the elections should be suspended, urging the state and Vice Admiral Ibas (rtd), to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court judgment of February 28, 2025, in conducting council polls, the Rivers Peace Initiative , which argued that peace should take precedence despite constitutional concerns.
A legal practitioner, Chetam Nwala, claiming neutrality in the now resolved conflict between the former governor and his successor, appealed for common sense. But his appeal carried no weight.
“We are not fighting for Fubara at all; we are fighting for the soul of Rivers State and demanding that what is right should be done. Whether the governor has had an agreement with the FCT Minister to carry out what they are doing currently, what we are saying is that it is not our concern right now. But the things happening in Rivers State are wrong and a defecation on our constitution,” he said, adding, “I am not here to push the influence of Fubara.
“Of course, I’m less concerned about whether he is the Governor or in the House of Representatives, but restore the democratic system to Rivers State. “Democracy should be seen and done in Rivers State and not the protection of individual influence, whether the influence of the FCT minister or the governor.”
After casting his vote during poll, Wike expressed optimism that emergency rule will be lifted after the elected officials are sworn in at the LGA.
He said, “As far as we are concerned, this election is peaceful, people are trooping out and at the end of the day the election has been conducted successfully and peacefully.
“I do know that by September 18, the state of emergency will expire and the state assembly will come back to their job and we will have a government at the grassroots level,”
The Supreme Court had, on February 25, 2025, nullified the earlier October 5, 2024, local government elections in which the Action Peoples Party (APP), backed by the now-suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, claimed victories in 22 out of 23 local government areas.
But the citizens spoke their minds about the exercise. They flouted the restriction of movement order by the police, as some markets are seen in partial operation, while people are seen moving for their personal businesses.
After a series of protests for and against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, both of whom were locked in a prolonged supremacy battle in the state, the Federal Government suspended the governor as well as the lawmakers and imposed an emergency rule with the appointment of retired Naval ex-Service Chief, Ibok Ekwe Ibas as Sole Administrator on March 18, 2025.
Three months later, in June, suspended governor Fubara, Wike, and the political actors in Rivers State met with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja and resolved the political conflict between both camps. One of the points agreed was said to be the conduct of the local government election.
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