4th May, 2015
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Rivers state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the council polls to be conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) on May 23, 2015 as illegal.
The PDP insists that it has secured court orders barring RSIEC from conducting local election, and proceeding with the exercise amounts to an open disrespect for the court. PDP said the court ordered that status-quo-ante be maintained and that it would be a wasteful exercise but RSIEC insists that PDP is deliberately misleading the people on what transpired in the court as there are no subsisting court orders.
In a statement by the Chairman of the party in the State, Felix Obuah and signed by his Special Adviser (Media), Jerry Needam, the PDP affirmed that anything done to conduct the election against the decision of the court amounts to a nullity.
The PDP stated that the Chairman and members of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), are card carrying members of the All Progressives Congress, APC and do not have the moral standing to conduct the election.
It said the composition of RSIEC negates the principle of natural justice, urging the RSIEC to abide by the rule of ‘nemo iudex in causa sua’ which literally means that no person can judge a case in which he has vested interest.
The party queried the rationale in conducting an election that brazenly breached the provisions of the law.
The PDP said the plan to hurriedly hold the election without recourse to the law is a deliberate ploy by the APC led-government of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and RSIEC to loot the state’s treasury.
According to the PDP, this deliberate disregard for the rule of law has vindicated the PDP’s position that Amaechi and the APC are desperados bent on causing crisis in the state.
It urged member of the PDP and the good people of Rivers state to remain calm, noting that, the illegal local government election would not stand.
However, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission had on Thursday said that it would go ahead with elections in 22 of the 23 local governments in the state on May 23.
The Commissioner in charge of Legal Services and Political Parties in the commission, Kathryn Ajayi, made this known to journalists in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
Ajayi said the people had been misinformed on the ruling by the Federal High court in a matter involving the Peoples Democratic Party, the Commission and three others.
Ajayi said the Federal High court did not make any order restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission from releasing official voters register to the commission.
She also said the court did not make any order restraining the commission from conducting the elections.
The commissioner said: “It has come to the notice of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission that the public has been grossly misinformed about the ruling of the court in the matter between PDP and INEC, RSIEC and three others.
Ajayi urged the public and political parties to disregard the false information and continue with the electoral activities as scheduled.
Ajayi said so far, 27 of the 28 registered political parties had collected the Expression of Intent Forms to take part in the local government election.