Trouble Ahead As Caretaker Chairmen Seek To Stop Rivers LG Polls

Trouble Ahead As Caretaker Chairmen Seek To Stop Rivers LG Polls

There seems to be trouble in the political atmosphere in Rivers State as controversies continue to emerge ahead of the local government elections scheduled to hold in February 2018.

This comes amid the long drawn legal battle over the last two years on the local government polls conducted by the past administration in April 2015.

The elections were eventually quashed in July 2015 by the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt while the elected chairmen were also sacked.

However, the current Caretaker Committee Chairmen of the 23 Local Government Areas in the state have raised an alarm over what they described as an “abuse of court processes”, should polls be conducted next year as slated.

They also alleged that a Special Court of Appeal Panel set up by the President of the Court of Appeal, set to sit in Port Harcourt on October 25 over the controversial matter of the administration of the councils in the State, would be acting against judicial order to sit on a matter when it is pending at the Supreme Court.

The caretaker chairmen further called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the National Judicial Council to urgently intervene in the matter to avert what they described as “possible anarchy” in the state.

Spokesman for the group and Caretaker Chairman of ONELGA, Osy Olisa, alleged on Tuesday that the opposition was trying to use the Appeal Court to get into office through the back door.

Olisa, who also acts as their legal adviser, said, “On July 9, 2015, the Federal High Court granted an application at the instance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and set aside the purported local government election conducted in disobedience of its orders and while the matter was still pending before it.”

“The All Progressives Congress (APC) later commenced an action before the Rivers State High Court seeking to validate the purported elections conducted in defiance of the law and it was dismissed by the court.

“On June 20, 2016, the Court of Appeal in appeal no CA/PH/26M/2016, granted some members of the All Progressives Congress leave to appeal against the ruling of the Federal High Court which set aside the purported election; these persons were neither parties to the suit nor were they candidates or winners of any election at the time the originating summons was commenced by the PDP at The Federal High Court.”

But the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state supported the decision of the Court of Appeal, saying no law has been broken.

A former member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Augustine Ngo, who also contested in the controversial polls in 2015, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was yet to obtain a restraining order on the suit in the Court of Appeal.

Ngo said, “There is no matter at the Supreme Court. What is in the Supreme Court is an appeal as to whether the PDP will get a stay of execution on the suit at the Court of Appeal and they have not obtained the order.

“If they have it they should present it before the panel and the justices of the Court of Appeal will remove their hands from the matter.”