By Suleiman Anyalewechi
Some concerned indigenes have moved to halt the planned Rivers State Local Council Polls.
The Source reports that the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, had penultimate week, announced August 30, 2025, as the date for a fresh Local Government Election in the State.
The Supreme Court had earlier in the year annulled the October 5, 2024 exercise, superintended over by the now suspended Governor Similanayi Fubara.
The Court had held that the conduct of the polls was not in tandem with extant laws of the land, hence its decision to quash it.
But the announcement of a new date for a fresh election has equally been greeted by a plethora of criticisms ,with not a few insisting that the proposed exercise remains illegal and unconstitutional.
Only last week, a coalition of Rivers Elders comprising a past Governor, former public and political leaders ,and major stakeholders had voiced their opposition to the planned local council polls.
They noted that the exercise as planned by the RSIEC is completely bereft of the constitutional and legal conditions precedent to Local Council Elections in the country.
According to them, all the fault lines that led to the annulment of the October 5 2024 exercise by the country’s Apex Court have resurfaced.
Specifically, the group described as totally unwarranted and unconstitutional, attempts by the Sole Administrator Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas to organize a Local Council Election under an Emergency Rule.
They warned that the conduct of the election in the absence of duly elected democratic institutions in the State has the potentials to trigger a more serious constitutional crisis.
Similarly, some political parties, including the nascent opposition Coalition. the African Democratic Congress, ADC, the All Peoples Party APP that emerged victorious during the October 5, 2024, exercise and others have announced their decision to boycott the planned election, citing its unconstitutional and illegal nature as major reasons for their actions.
In furtherance of their opposition, five aggrieved indigenes of the state have instituted legal proceedings seeking to stop the said election.
The plaintiffs, Comfort Agbom , Frederick Ededeh, Benita Samuel, Jane Madubuike, and Boma Aggo, have filed a suit at a Federal High Court in Abuja seeking, among other things, an order stopping President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Rivers state Sole Administrator Ibas, and the RSIEC from going ahead with the August 30 local council polls in Rivers state.
They are challenging the validity and propriety of conducting a Local Government Election under an Emergency Rule situation.
They have asked the Court to determine if the conduct of Local Council Polls under a Sole Administrator and emergency rule does not amount to an act of illegality.
They contended that the situation in Rivers State does not allow for the conduct of a lawful Local Government Election, being that the precarious situation which was referenced by the respondents, particularly President Tinubu, for declaring a State of Emergency is very much in place .
“The President, during the declaration of the State of Emergency said ‘there is clear and present danger, or imminent breakdown of public order and safety’
“The emergencies have not abated, or ceased to date,
the reason why the President has not revoked or suspended the State of Emergency to date”
They argued that based on the fact that the uncertainty, tension and anxiety that informed the proclamation of the State of Emergency are still very much in place, it would be most appropriate for the Court to halt the planned Local Council Election, which may endanger the lives of voters and the entire residents of the State.
They equally contended that Vice Admiral Ibas, as well as the RSIEC have no constitutional powers to conduct democratic elections in Rivers State under the prevailing emergency rule situation.
The plaintiffs, therefore, prayed the Court to halt the planned election.
They also urged the Court to set aside and/or nullify the elections should the respondents go ahead to conduct the polls.
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