The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has announced that it is boycotting the forthcoming local government elections in the state.
The council election in the state is scheduled for October 5, 2024.
The exercise, however, faces significant uncertainty unless immediate measures are implemented to resolve specific issues within the electoral process.
Members of the APC loyal to the caretaker committee Chairman, Chief Tony Okocha, alleged some procedural irregularities as their reasons to not participate in the election.
During a recent stakeholders meeting in Port Harcourt, Tony Okocha, articulated the party’s stance, emphasizing that the decision to boycott the election stems from concerns that the electoral process does not adhere to established legal standards.
Okocha further indicated that the party had initiated legal action to halt all proceedings related to the election, citing a failure to comply with the requisite legal protocols.
He said: “The topical issue we have to discuss is the issue of APC contesting local government elections on the 5th of October. That is one thing you would like to hear. We are in court and I will not speak in any matter that is in court. The much I can say to you is that the cause of action is to restrain the agencies that will conduct that election that they announced behind us.
“We are not part of the decisions to conduct an election on the 5th of October. We went on air on the 19th of January, if I remember to tell the INEC Chairman and the Commission to convey the process of having that local government election at that time. It was still within the ambits of the laws of the State because the law says three months to the expiration of the life of a Chairman or tenure of the council that, the national body should organize an election.
“That the process should commence, the table released and that the 21 days inside that three three-month elections should be held. That law, now as we speak, will not work. It will not work; you cannot go and conduct local government elections in Rivers State without a party like APC. I know, too, that PDP is not even in the race, so what we see is just a drama.
“The reason we went to court is not because we don’t have the number or strength. I can assure you, and you know for yourself, that we have men and women who can contest any election and win.
“We are saying that the processes should be strengthened to be transparent so that we cannot just go and work on tons and get ourselves hurt. I was only doing whistle-blowing because that election would not represent the interests and opinions of those who would vote. It is already stereotyped. The handout had already been written. We have built party formations, and we have built elections in this state. They are just coming in, and they need to learn from us how we succeeded.
“So if you have to go by a good approach, you will not succeed. The day that they said they had a stakeholders meeting, I was not invited. The APC Rivers State was not invited to the stakeholders meeting where the decision for the October 5th election was taken. So we cannot participate in that election because there was a deliberate plan to make us worthless, so we went to court.
“We are not saying we wouldn’t contest the election; our contention is until the processes are in tandem with the law and that we, as a party; we are also aware we were not carried along in the entire arrangement.”
