LG poll: PDP no longer popular in Rivers, afraid of defeat—APP

The Action Peoples Party has mocked the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State for pulling out of the forthcoming local government elections in the state scheduled for October 5, 2024, saying the action shows fear of defeat.

This is as the APP vows to clinch the chairmanship position in all 23 local government areas of the state and the councillor’s positions, saying PDP’s claim of popularity in the state was in the past.

Recall that the State PDP, Aaron Chukwuemeka, at stakeholders meeting at the party’s secretariat in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, said the ruling party in the state would not participate in the council polls, saying it is awaiting the outcome of a case filed by the All Progressives Congress led by Chief Tony Okocha against the conduct of the elections.

Chukwuemeka also took a swipe at the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, alleging that the electoral umpire did not extend any invitation to the PDP as it did to other parties in the state for its stakeholders meeting where the date of the election and other issues were agreed upon.
But speaking at a Senatorial campaign in Ahoada East local government area on Wednesday evening, the State APP Chairman, Sunny Wokekoro, said the PDP was being clever by half and merely giving flimsy excuses.

Wokekoro slammed the PDP for relying on a case according to whether such was instituted by another party as a reason for boycotting the LG polls in the state, when in truth it knows that the APP would have defeated the ruling party fair and square had they fielded candidates.

He stated, “On the 5th of October, the Action Peoples Party is going to clinch the councillorship election in all 319 wards. We are also going to win the chairmanship positions in all 23 local government areas of the state. Nobody can stop us, victory will be ours because the people are with us and God is with us.
“So we have come to you today to present our manifesto. While other parties are complaining here and there, and some of them are waiting for an imaginary court order to stop RSIEC from conducting elections.

“Unfortunately for them, their lawyers did not tell them that there is no law in the land that stops RSIEC from conducting any elections.

“When RSIEC came out with a timetable for the election, even parties that were accusing people of contesting the election came to say there is a court case somewhere, they are waiting for a court case, a court case that they did not institute.

“There is no law in this land that stops RSIEC or INEC from conducting elections. Either you are ready for the election or you are not ready. Their make-believe popularity would have been exposed if they had shown and they would have been put to shame if they ever came out for this election.”

He boasted, he said, “Whether they (PDP) participate in this election or not, even though they have chickened out like lily-livered people, we are ready for this election and we will win,” he boasted.

Our correspondent reports that the sacked Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC in Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha, said in a news briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday that the LG election will not be held following the suit he filed in court against RSIEC.

But the RSIEC Chairman, Justice Adolphus Enebeli (retd.), while speaking at training for staff of the commission, said the October 5 date for the polls is sacrosanct, insisting that there is neither any judgment nor impediment stopping the state electoral umpire from conducting the elections.