An opposition party in the country, the Action People’s Party (APP), has passed a vote of confidence on the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for announcing October 5, 2024 as the date for the conduct of local government elections in the state.
The party also hailed Governor Sim Fubara for giving the nod for the state electoral umpire to conduct election for democratically elected local government chairmen and Ward councillors to emerge rather than allowing the undemocratic practice of caretaker governance at the third tier of government continue unabated.
APP at a press briefing in Abuja by its National Chairman, Barr. Uche Nnadi, the party welcomed the announcement by RSIEC Chairman, Justice Adolphus Enebeli (rted), at a stakeholders meeting in Port Harcourt on Monday and vowed that the party will participate fully in the polls.
The party expressed confidence that with the democratic posture of Governor Fubara and demonstration of neutrality by RSIEC, it will win at the October 5, 2024 local government polls in the South-South state.
The party called on other governors to emulate the democratic disposition of their Rivers State counterpart and back their respective State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) to conduct local elections unlike the practice where some of them keep appointing and reappointing caretaker committees more than one year after they assumed office.
“The Action People’s Party (APP), one of Nigeria’s leading opposition party received with ecstasy the announcement of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission
(RSIEC) that it will conduct local government election o October 5, 2024. This is a welcome development and for this action, we pass vote of confidence on the state electoral umpire.
“We equally hail the Executive Governor of Rivers State, His Excellency Sim Fubara for his democratic posture to give a nod for RSIEC to hold the exercise though most of his colleagues who they took oath of office on the same day both for their first and second term have not shown the commitment to entrenching democratically elected leadership at the grassroots but have rather continued to appoint and reappoint caretaker committees for more than a year now.
“By this show of concern in the consolidation of democracy in the state, our party’s confidence has been restored and we will therefore fully participate in the exercise with firm believe that we will win going by pace set by the His Excellency Governor Fubara and the RSIEC Chairman, Justice Adolphus Enebeli, (rted).
“We also urged other Governors and SIECs who are yet to fix date for local government elections since May 29, 2023 to borrow a leaf from Governor Fubara as well as RSIEC and immediately work out the modalities to conduct council polls in order to do away with the undemocratic practice of appointing and reappointing caretaker committees.
“Nigeria, having attained 25 unbroken years of democracy can not continue with the obnoxious practice of running the third tier of government through caretaker committees or sole administrators as it is obtained in some states. The local more than other tiers of government is where democracy is supposed to thrive more if truly it is the ‘government of the people by the people and for the people’ because that is where the people really reside,” it stated.