The Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), loyal to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, has rejected the results of the local government elections.
They described the poll as a futile exercise and vowed to challenge it in court.
Recall that in Saturday’s municipal elections, the Action People’s Party (APP) secured 22 of the 23 chairperson positions, and the Action Alliance candidate won one seat.
APP also won 314 out of 319 parliamentary seats in the state's 23 local councils.
Mr. Hubala was then sworn in as the newly elected council presidents of the state’s 23 local governments on Sunday.
Naija News understands that Mr Hubala’s supporters switched to APP after losing control of the PDP to Wike.
Commenting on the poll, PDP State Public Relations Secretary Kenneth Yowika said the party would challenge the election in court.
“We are further pursuing the courts to ensure that justice is done and deemed to have been done. So whether the oath will be taken today (Sunday) or tomorrow (Monday). I do not agree with or acknowledge that,” he told The Punch.
Yowika said from the beginning that the state’s ruling party had insisted on the Federal High Court’s ruling banning the holding of parliamentary polls, calling the state government’s actions illegal.
Yowika said: “First of all, everything on this issue is illegal. I did.
“And I said the other day that there is no point in taking any action on local government issues, because if we say we are a country that upholds the rule of law, then we should not do anything that is against the law. ” law.
“The law required us to act in line with the judgment of the Federal High Court, but the government at the time did not do so.
“So we are a law-abiding party. We are not going to physically come out and start a fight. Yesterday (Saturday) we held protests that clearly showed there was no election. I did it.
“And we stand by the decision that the election did not take place and wait for action by the judiciary and other government bodies that should put things in proper perspective. We maintain that there was no election. I will continue to do so.”
He continued: “We visited the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission yesterday and clearly the world saw that there was no election there. We uphold the Federal High Court’s decision that it should not continue.
“Well, they tried to do whatever pretense people saw and that is not acceptable to the Peoples Democratic Party.As we said, we are a law-abiding party and that We are in a position to maintain it.”
