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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has stated that the sole administrator of Rivers State, Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), lacks the constitutional authority to conduct any election for the Rivers people.
The party vowed not to participate in the local government election slated for August 30, 2025, describing the build-up to the poll as a charade.
The state Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Luckyman Egila, stated this while addressing newsmen in Port Harcourt over the weekend.
He said, “The African Democratic Congress, Rivers State chapter, will not be participating in the selection process that is going on in Rivers State, because an election is not taking place in Rivers State.
“Rivers State is presently under martial law. When you are under emergency rule, you want to come and conduct elections, but I don’t know how.
“The Administrator that is there now constitutionally does not have the right to conduct elections for Rivers people because he does not represent Rivers people.
“We don’t know him. So, appointing someone who is not from Rivers State to come and conduct elections for us is absurd. We will not be partaking in the charade they call elections.”
The state Publicity Secretary of the Beke-led APC, Darlington Nwauju, accused Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) of “creating its own rules.”
Nwauju said that under the previous RSIEC, led by Justice Adolphus Enebeli (retd.), which was suspended, the faction’s candidates had emerged.
He lamented that the current commission, chaired by Dr Michael Odey, had not even contacted the Beke leadership.
He stated, “So we are waiting on RSIEC to do the right thing so that we can be part of the process. They have not done the right thing, so we cannot stay outside and say we can be part of the process, whereas RSIEC has clearly, as at this moment, ignored the subsisting order of a state high court, which validates Chief Emeka Beke’s leadership.
“They need to interface with us because we have our internal processes. We had nominated candidates before, and those candidates are all alive. We are not saying we are not prepared, if we are contacted or communicated with, to run elections.”
He added, “Part of our fears with the present commission is the fact that, whereas they have used some of the materials and policies earlier adopted by the Justice Adolphus Enebeli commission, they are now cherry-picking in terms of what to adopt.
“Now, what happens to the fact that stakeholders of political parties who were contacted officially about the process are suddenly not communicated with again?”
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