Atiku, Obi Lack Moral Justification To Criticise Rivers LG Election — Wike
THECONSCIENCE NG reports that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike, has defended the legality of the recently concluded local government elections in Rivers State, declaring that the emergency rule granted constitutional cover for their conduct.
Speaking about the backlash following the polls, Wike said critics of the exercise, particularly former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra governor Peter Obi, were ignorant of the law and motivated by political frustration, and therefore lacked the moral justification to criticise the Rivers local government election.
The Minister, who spoke during a media chat in Abuja, also explained that the Federal High Court had given Rivers State the legal basis to conduct the elections despite subsisting disputes, stressing that emergency rule provided the President with powers to make regulations for governance in affected states.
“Under emergency rule, certain aspects of the law are suspended to allow government function. The sole administrators act on behalf of the President. Funds are made available in line with Supreme Court pronouncements,” Wike said.
He faulted Atiku for questioning the exercise, arguing that the former vice president was unaware that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had signed amendments on emergency powers in 2004. “What you don’t know, don’t comment about. This is law, not customs. Atiku does not have the knowledge,” he charged.
On Obi, Wike mocked the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate for describing the Rivers polls as “rascality.” “Who can be more rascal than Obi? As governor for eight years, he could only conduct an election two months before leaving office. Doctors were on strike for 13 months under him. He has no moral authority to lecture anyone on democracy,” Wike declared.
On how the alleged alliance between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) regarding local government elections influenced the outcome, the Minister dismissed suggestions that the results of the Rivers polls, in which the APC secured significant victories, portend a national trend ahead of 2027.
“Every election has its peculiarity. What is important is that for the first time in our history, no gunshots, no hijacking of ballot boxes, no kidnapping of returning officers. If there is an alliance between APC and PDP in Rivers, then Nigerians should commend us for achieving peaceful elections,” he stated.
He attributed the PDP’s poor showing in the state to internal crises, particularly tensions between the state and the party’s national leadership. “We advised those who still had confidence to contest. PDP’s problem in Rivers was created by the national body,” he added.
It would be recalled that the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, over the weekend posted on his X official handle criticising the election, calling on opposition parties to reject it.
“By the shameful and shambolic manner in which the occupation government went ahead to conduct local government elections in Rivers State, it is clear that the ruling APC party is not leaving anyone in doubt that it is prepared to throw caution to the wind to achieve an inordinate political advantage,” he said.
He called on Nigerians, the international community, and partners of the country to pay attention to what he described as a “dangerous curve that the President Bola Tinubu regime is taking our dear country.”
Atiku also appealed to opposition parties in Rivers State to reject the elections.
“I will also call on all opposition parties in Rivers State to reject the local government election on the premise that the occupation government that conducted the exercise is extraneous to our laws, with absolutely no legitimacy to undertake such a crucial and sensitive assignment,” he stated.
Atiku concluded by expressing solidarity with the people of Rivers State, who he said are “currently victims of political brigandry to a power cabal which is bent on overturning their democratic rights at all costs.”
