By Elizabath Chukwuma
Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers state and a one-time ally of Nyensom Wike, who incidentally was a former governor of the state and now minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, under the present Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration is not happy man.
This is because of the plot to sabotage the proposed Rivers state local government elections by Wike and his loyalists, using the Federal might. Tony Okocha, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APP, chapter of the state, and a close political ally of Wike , may have known that if the Rivers state council election should hold as spelt out, Fubara’s Candidates will win in all the Local Areas in the state that the he asked INEC and all the security agencies ‘’to steer clear of the Gov. Fubara, organized local government elections on grounds that the legal requirements were not met by the state government. He had his way.
Olufemi Obaniwonda, the Rivers state Commissioner of Police, was said to have alerted the governor that the Command had received an ‘order from Ayuba Ekpeji, Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG, Operations, on the orders of Kayode Egbetokun, ‘’restraining it from providing security during the planned Local Government elections in the state on Saturday, October 5, 2024.
The plot to sabotage the Rivers sate local government may have been hatched in such a way as if it was a directive from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the close watch of Mahmood Yakubu, a Professor. A press statement issued by Grace Iringe –Koko, a Superintendent of police and spokesperson of the Rivers state Police Command, on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, had said that the proposed Saturday, October 5, 2024, Local Government Chairmanship Election will not be monitored by the police personnel in the state as the Command had received a restraining order ‘’preventing them from providing security during the elections’’.

The Nigerian Police Force, NPF, top hierarchy, which many believe are working closely with Wike the FCT , minister , to scuttle the elections, were said to have concluded plans to take over the state Independent Electoral Commission , RSEIC, premises which became a public knowledge .
There were reports that the state police Command had a plan B, to scale through the gates to enter the strong room of the Commission to cart away the essential electoral materials meant for the conduct of the planned Saturday Local Government elections .
The governor , who could not take it from his detractors, was said to have stormed the Rivers state Independent Electoral Commission, RSEIC , premises , accompanied by the Chief of Staff, Speaker of the state House of Assembly , some other state and National Assembly members , including party Chieftains, sympathetic to his cause in the state to forestall the police plot .
An eyewitness account shows that both not for the governor and his loyalists quick intervention to save the situation from degenerating, the FCT, minister’s plan to scuttle the election with the support of the NPF, would have materialized as some unspecified number of policemen were found inside two trucks and two Hilux vehicles were stationed outside the RSEIC premises in Port Harcourt, the state Capital.
The Rivers state governor , who could not understand the business between the Ekpeji, DIG, Operations and the Rivers state Local Government Chairmanship elections, was said to have mobilized the state internal security personnel to provide adequate security during the elections. He was said to have told those that cares to listen that if the LGAs, elections is going to be his last fight with the one man, who claims he owns the state PDP chapter and the state, he is satisfied, with it, stating the era of giving respects to the person is over. Enough is enough’’, he had remarked.
The governor may have been encouraged to hold the elections because of the Supreme Court Judgment of July 11, 2024, which effectively ‘’outlawed the administration of local government councils with unconnected officers including the immediate stoppage of statutory allocations to councils without democratically elected local government councils’’.
He may have sent a message to Wike and his cohorts that the state Local government elections must hold as planned ‘’to comply with the three months of grace given by the ruling APC, to begin the implementation of the apex Court Judgment on Local Government Autonomy.
What had happened in Rivers state was not different from what happened in the south eastern state of Anambra, where the opposition APC and PDP, were said to have done everything within their powers, including going through the Court process to stop the council elections in the state but prof. Chukwuma Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Administration, but could not have their way.
The Professor of Economics, who was said to have sent a message to he Opposition parties that he elections must hold as proposed did not hesitate in doing so despite complaint of shabby conduct of the pools, which the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, in the state, Candidates , won hands down.
This may have emboldened Gov. Fubara , to give his words that the election must hold in the oil Rivers state as planned, stressing that the likes of Wike, the CT, minister, Chukwuma Aaron, the state PDP chapter, Chairman or Fayoade, the state Commissioner of Police cannot stop the elections from holding.
Notwithstanding the tension that had been created I Rivers state over the LGAs, elections, political analysts fears that even the LGAs, election should hold as planned, Gov. Fubara, would be the greatest loser since the PDP, which is his party Chairmanship Candidates would not participate in the election in the state. The governor may have alluded to this when he told his political Associates that he would be the greatest lose because the PDP, is not participating in the Saturday’s LGAs, elections in the Niger Delta region state.
Nigerians are watching to see how two political gladiators on the warpath in Rivers state over the propsed LGAs, elections, would end it. Many believes that the Anambra spectacles would play out in rIvers state again.