By Mark Lenu
Some aggrieved candidates who contested the October 5 local government chairmanship election in Rivers State say the newly elected local government chairmen will not be in office till the end of their three year term.
The candidates who want to drag RSIEC and the council chairmen to court declined to have their names and parties mentioned as they told our correspondent that the legal fireworks were still at the preparatory stage.
The election in question was conducted on October 5 by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission across the 23 LGAs of the state with the Action Peoples Party winning all chairmanship seats except Etche LGA.
According to the aggrieved candidates, the election was far below free and fair, citing obvious irregularities, including lack of result sheets at the polling units.
They said unacceptable sheet of papers were used to enter vote scores, while the main result sheets were kept elsewhere to stockpile higher scores for APP candidates.
“The election was a scam and we will challenge it from the tribunal to the last stage because we know quite well that what took place on October 5 was selection not election.
“We can not accept what RSIEC conducted as election, the court must look into it and give its verdict on it. Those who were declared winners do not have what it takes to win election in a free and fair contest.
“We have sufficient evidence at our disposal to prove that the election was marred by irregularities intentionally allowed to happen in order to rig us out of the election.” They said.
The LG election was conducted across the state to replace the immediate past chairmen and councilors whose tenure elapsed on June 17, 2024.
