By Mark Lenu
The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission says it will commence the screening of candidates for the forthcoming LG election next week.
The Commission said this during an emergency meeting it held with all political party chairmen and secretaries in the state.
RSIEC also assured the public that the election would be held on October 5 as earlier scheduled.
A memo containing part of the resolutions reached at the meeting was made available to our correspondent.
It reads, “After an emergency meeting with all Chairmen and Secretaries of political parties in Rivers State by RSIEC, it was resolved as follows:
- “The October 5th Local Government Council election still holds.
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“The commission will commence screening of candidates by next week.”
The assurance given by RSIEC came amid skepticism that the growing political crisis in the state might force RSIEC to postpone the date of the election.
Currently, the two major political parties in the state and country, PDP and APC appear not to be ready for the election as their state internal crisis continues to persist.
The outcome of the election will end the reign of appointing a caretaker committee to run the affairs of local government councils in the state.
The Supreme Court had said it is illegal for local government not to be run by elected officials and ordered that funds should not be released to LGs that are being run by caretaker committees.
However, the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara appointed the current caretaker committees to run the 23 LGAs of the state before the apex court pronouncement on local government autonomy.
