There is anxiety in the polity as four states hold local government elections today. This is sequel to the issues, twists and turns ahead of the elections.
Eligible voters in Rivers, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Jigawa states will again have the opportunity to vote their preferred candidates to fill the chairmanship and councillorship seats. There are fears that the ruling parties in the four states will still sweep all the seats despite the autonomy granted to the local government areas.
Political analysts have predicted that the elections would not be different from the previous exercises where state governors, to a large extent, determined winners.
Some Nigerians have expressed concerns that the election will go the way of those recently held in Kwara, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto and Anambra states, where the ruling parties in the states won all the seats.
Apart from the issue of ruling party taking it all, others include intra-party crisis, moves by some political parties to either boycott or stop the election from holding in their states, and court orders stopping elections etc.
Rivers
Weekend Trust reports that the situation in Rivers is dicey considering the twists and turns in the polity ahead of today’s election.
Pundits have predicted that if the election holds today, the Action People’s Party (APP) could win all the seats. This followed the defection of Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s men to the party ahead of the poll and the crises in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It would be recalled that some local government caretaker committee chairmen loyal to Fubara recently defected to the APP. It was also gathered that another faction of the PDP loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike had withdrawn from the election. A faction of the APC led by Emeka Beke, loyal to a former governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi, had, however, announced its readiness to participate in the election today.
Benue
The main opposition party in Benue State, the PDP and the ruling APC are going into the election with a baggage of crises as there are two warring factions reportedly led by former governors Gabriel Suswam and Samuel Ortom, who are bent on controlling the structure.
There was tension yesterday morning when the newly inaugurated State Working Committee (SWC) of the PDP was locked out of the party’s state secretariat in Makurdi.
The SWC, allegedly backed by Ortom, had arrived to collect handover notes from the outgoing caretaker committee, only to find the building under lock and key.
Akwa Ibom
In Akwa Ibom State, the APC and other opposition parties have not shown determination to win the election as analysts say “they have been sleeping.”
