- Safiu Kehinde
Voting exercise has commenced in Rivers State’s rerun Local Government election.
Recall that the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) had rescheduled the LG election to hold today following the Supreme Court’s nullification of the October 2024 election conducted by the suspended governor of the state, Siminalayi Fubara.
The suspended governor had last year defied directives not to hold the election amid political unrest in the state which was largely attributed to the his clash with his predecessor and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Fubara had proceeded with the election which saw the Action People’s Congress (APP) winning all polls.
Coupled with the Supreme Court’s order withdrawing the Federal Government allocations to the state, the apex court had also declared the election null.
Fubara would be suspended months after by President Bola Tinubu following the declaration of emergency rule in the state over the persistent unrest.
With Vice Admiral Ibok-ette Ibas taking the mantle of leadership as Rivers State sole administrator, the new leadership had pledged to conduct a rerun of the LG election before the return of Fubara.
In fulfilment of the pledge, RSIEC today mobilised its officials across the 6,866 polling units in the 23 local government areas of the state.
Voting had since commenced as electorates could been in some of the polling u it’s casting their votes.
With Tinubu already brokering a truce between Fubara and Wike, the FCT Minister had reportedly arrived in Rivers ahead of the election and is set to vote at his polling unit.
It however remain uncertain if Fubara will also be voting at the election.