A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has dismissed last Saturday’s local government elections in Rivers State as a sham, insisting the process will not withstand judicial scrutiny.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Eze commended Rivers residents for boycotting the exercise across the state’s 23 local government areas, describing their action as an outright rejection of what he called “political illegality.”
He alleged that the polls were managed by a team unlawfully appointed by Sole Administrator Ibok-Ette Ibas, adding that the exercise produced only 23 chairmanship contenders, all loyalists of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
Eze further claimed that result sheets for all polling units were hijacked and kept in a private hotel in Port Harcourt, where figures were distributed. He urged the public to disregard the outcome announced by the electoral body, insisting that there was no real voting.
“It is pathetic to learn that in Emohua, Ikwerre, Obio-Akpor, Port Harcourt City and other local government areas where voters shunned the charade, results still credited chairmanship candidates with tens and hundreds of thousands of votes,” Eze said.
According to him, the alleged manipulation underscores a pattern in Wike’s political history. He recalled that during the 2023 presidential election, Wike lost his polling unit to the Labour Party but later benefitted from altered results at the collation stage.
