6th May, 2015
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Scores of supporters of All Progressive Congress, APC, in Rivers state today staged protest at the party headquarters against alleged imposition of candidates for the May 23 local Government elections in the state to be organised by Rivers State Independent Election, RSIEC.
The APC protesters who were mainly drawn from Ahoada West and Obio-Akpor local government areas told PM News that the some bigwigs of the party used their positions to manipulate the local government party primaries.
For Ahoada West, Chief Ngozi Otobo, a local government chairman aspirant who led APC supporters to protest at party Secretariat complained that there were no materials brought to Akinima, headquarters the council where party delegates waited till 8:00 pm for materials and officials of the party to conduct the party primaries.
He alleged that the materials were hijacked by Mr. Samuel Enyiba, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs who is also interested in contesting for chairman.
“The Chairmanship seat was zoned to Igbudia where I emerged after a keen contest with four other contestants. We were supposed to have an open contest at the APC party primaries to pick the aspirant who will slug it out with aspirants from other parties during the local government election. But Eyinda using his position in government did not let our party primary hold,” Chief Otobo alleged.
He wondered why a serving Commissioner who had not resigned his position as required by law is also manipulating internal party machinery to position himself as the APC candidate for Ahoada West local government.
Protesters from Obio-Akpor alleged that Mr Tony Okocha, the immediate chief of staff to Governor Chibuike Amaechi also used his privileged position to impose a candidate on Obio-Akpor.
The protesters insisted that state executive of the party must address their grievances and live up to the “Change” chant. It said the abnormal way of running a party is when internal democracy is not allowed to thrive.
Dr.Davies Ikanya, the chairman of the party in the state who arrived at the party Secretariat amidst tight security tried to calm the peaceful protesters by assuring them that their grievances have reached the party leaders and investigations are ongoing.
Party supporters still roamed around the secretariat insisting that they want assurances that proper party primaries will be conducted in the affected local government areas.
Calls put across to both Okocha and Eyinda did not connect. As at the time of filing this report, they are yet respond to the accusations against them.
Meanwhile, the PDP in the state has gone to court to challenge the legality of the local government election alleging that RSIEC breached the local government electoral law. They warned that the proposed election would be nullified by the court.