Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday, commenced protests in Rivers State, against the scheduled local government election in the state.
Naija News reported that Rivers State government led by Governor Siminalaya Fubara, announced October 5th for the local government chairmanship and councillorship elections.
While the leading PDP and APC are entangled in court cases as a result of internal crisis, the All Peoples Party (APP) has positioned itself as the party to win the local government elections.
In the PDP, the political crisis between Governor Fubara and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, led to an inconclusive state congress, as each of the factions held their congresses and elected their state executives.
Each of the Wike and Fubara factions has also gone to court on which faction holds the leadership of the state’s PDP chapter. While the national leadership of the PDP has yet to bring the two political gladiators to agree to the path of peace, none of the factions may contest in the local government elections following court judgments.
The main opposition APC also are entangled in a leadership crisis, between the faction led by Emeka Beke and the faction led by Tony Okocha.
Naija News reported that the Beke-led faction wrote the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stating they would participate in the October 5 election.
According to Beke, Governor Fubara’s insistence that the election must be held on October 5th as against a court judgement in favour of Okocha’s led faction was in line with a Supreme Court’s ruling.
As the two main political parties fight for leadership, most of the caretaker chairmen in the state picked forms for the election under the APP.