By Kingston Magare
The Rivers State Local Government elections went ahead Saturday morning amidst pockets of violence, protests and intimidations.
Rivers State governor Siminalayi Fubara had insisted that the polls must go on despite a Federal High Court Abuja order barring Policemen and the Independent National Electoral Commission from participating in the elections and also a River State High Court ordered the suspension of the elections, following legal challenges to the process.
Mr. Fubara said the exercise could not be jettisoned on the whim of an individual in Abuja who is bent on causing anarchy in the Rivers State. He said the process is governed by the laws of Rivers State.
“The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, is it not an agency, and a process that is being controlled by the state government? Is it not a system that is governed by the law of the state? Why is Rivers State’s case different?”
The elections went on without police presence and so soon violence erupted when men dressed in police uniform invaded a polling station in Elekahia Primary School in Port Harcourt City Local Government shooting teargas and seizing election materials.
The heavily armed and masked men who arrive in about 21 Hilux Patrol Vans fired shots into the air and released tear gas that sent voters and officials of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission scampering for safety as the armed carted away voting materials.
There was also an explosion at the premises of the factional headquarters of the All-Progressives Congress causing damages to some parts of the building.
Supporters of former governor and Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike stated a protest against the election. The supporters numbering about 150 carried placards reading “Obey Court Order” and “No Justice, No Election.”
