As PDP, APC Battle Over LG Polls In Rivers

Tuesday, September 16,
2014, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi inaugurated caretaker committee chairmen of 21 local government councils in Rivers State at Government House with an assurance that democratically-elected officials will run the councils in Rivers State next year. This is the second time caretaker committees would be made to oversee the affairs of the local government councils since the tenure of the democratically-elected council officials expired in June.
Out of the former CTC chairmen, seven of them including those of Opobo/Nkoro, Oyigbo, Obio/Akpor, Omuma, Bonny and Emohua local government areas were retained, while new CTC chairmen were appointed into 14 councils Only Degema and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government areas were exempted as the tenure of their chairmen is still running.
While inaugurating the CTC chairmen, Governor Amaechi said the State would organise LG elections immediately after the national elections. While charging the new CTC chairmen to serve the interest of the grassroot, the State Chief Executive sounded a note of warning that any of them found wanting will risk removal.
The newly inaugurated CTC have since begun work in their respective councils, but the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State is crying foul and not happy that caretaker committees are still holding forth in the LGAs about three months after the tenure of the democratically-elected council officials expired. The party is equally worried that there are no hope of conducting polls at the third tier of government in the State before 2014 runs out.
Rivers PDP disagreed with Amaechi’s decision to conduct council polls next year immediately after the 2015 national elections. The PDP attributed Governor Amaechi’s decision to use caretaker committees instead of conducting council elections to the fear of defeat at the local government polls.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser on Media to the party chairman, Jerry Needam, the Rivers PDP, challenged the state governor to a popularity contest through the conduct of council elections.
PDP had been the ruling party in Rivers State since 1999, but with the defection of Governor Amaechi, his executive and majority of the lawmakers at the State House of Assembly to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the PDP lost its ruling status. Providing a critical searchlight on the activities of now APC-led government in the State is seen by PDP as a better instrument to position and launch itself back to political reckoning.
If there are doubts about the worry of Rivers PDP and what it plans to do in feasible future, the following statements said it all.
“The PDP regrets that it is the local government councils and the people that are at loss for not getting the leadership they deserve and by extension, are underdeveloped. We are on ground and ever prepared to engage Governor Amaechi and his All Progressives Congress in a free and fair electoral contest any day and are sure of coasting home in a landslide victory because we are genuine, caring, articulate and purposeful,” the statement added.
While PDP may be celebrating for taking APC and the Amaechi administration to task, Dr Davies Ibiamu Ikanya-led APC in Rivers State, fired back at the PDP.
In a statement in Port Harcourt, Ikanya blamed the Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesome Wike and the lingering political crisis in the State for the delay in the conduct of local government elections in the state.
Apart from alleging that Wike engineered the political crisis in the state which has made it impossible for the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) to conduct council polls, Ikanya insists that “the non-conduct of the council elections in the State is not out of the fear of anybody or out of the fear of losing to PDP but for the sake of peace.”
Ikanya said the clarification has become necessary to correct the propaganda by Rivers PDP that Governor Amaechi did not conduct local government elections because he was afraid of defeat. Many may wonder why APC involved. The State APC Chairman alleged that Wike’s unseen hand manipulated the National Judicial Council (NJC) to favour the choice of Justice Daisy Okocha as the State Chief Judge instead of allowing the governor to exercise his constitutional powers to appoint a chief judge in the State in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That was the genesis of the crisis in the Judiciary in Rivers State. This has incapacitated judicial activities in the State. The fact remains that you cannot conduct elections without the judiciary because without a chief judge of the State who is expected to constitute an election tribunal to handle petitions that may arise after the elections, such polls would be an exercise in futility,” the APC chairman said.
Ikanya added that “if the PDP is actually serious about meeting its waterloo in the council elections in the state, it should prevail on Wike to stop the judicial crisis in the State by asking the NJC to allow the governor to exercise his constitutional powers to appoint the most qualified judge as the Chief Judge of the State.”
Like PDP, the APC also boasted that “if election is conducted today, the PDP would not win any councillorship position in any of the local government areas of the State.”
Justifying why Governor Amaechi cannot succumb to PDP’s challenge of conducting LG polls,  this year Ikanya said “the governor, as a man who has great respect for the laws of the land, cannot engage in an exercise that would be stalled halfway just because he wants to satisfy a non-existing party like PDP in the State.”
Beyond the issue of the council polls that have engaged both PDP and APc in war of words, the issue of who takes over from incumbent Governor Amaechi lies the intense agitation in the politics of Rivers State.
While the concern of Rivers men and women is raging without measure about who gets the governorship ticket of PDP, the same cannot be said of who becomes the State APC gubernatorial flagbearer. Right now, no fewer than 10 aspirants with posters are known to be jostling for the PDP governorship ticket, but nobody has formally declared governorship interest under the APC platform.
But the body languages of two APC Rivers members at the National Assembly, however, indicate that they may be eyeing the Rivers Brick House.
Whether PDP is “sure of coasting home in a landslide victory when election is conducted in Rivers State” or the APC believes that “the PDP cannot win councillorship seat in any of the local government areas,” the factor remains that tomorrow’s political race has begun in earnest and it takes the runner on the fast lane to arrive the destination point with good results. Which party gets the good result and picks the political crown of glory – PDP or APC? Only time will tell.

Samuel Eleonu

Cross section of Chairmen Caretaker Committees taking their oath of office at the swearing-in at Government House, Port Harcourt recently. Photo: Chris Monyanaga