Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) began protests in Rivers State on Thursday against the upcoming local government elections.
According to reports, the state government, led by Governor Siminalayi Fubara, scheduled the elections for October 5.
Both the PDP and APC are currently involved in court disputes due to internal crises, while the All Peoples Party (APP) is positioning itself as the frontrunner for the elections.
In the PDP, the political conflict between Governor Fubara and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, resulted in an inconclusive state congress, with each faction holding separate congresses and electing their own state executives.
Each of the Wike and Fubara factions has also gone to court on which faction holds the leadership of the state’s PDP chapter. While the national leadership of the PDP has yet to bring the two political gladiators to agree to the path of peace, none of the factions may contest in the local government elections following court judgments.
The main opposition APC also are entangled in a leadership crisis, between the faction led by Emeka Beke and the faction led by Tony Okocha.
Reports proves that the Beke-led faction wrote the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stating they would participate in the October 5 election.
According to Beke, Governor Fubara’s insistence that the election must be held on October 5th as against a court judgement in favour of Okocha’s led faction was in line with a Supreme Court’s ruling.
As the two main political parties fight for leadership, most of the caretaker chairmen in the state picked forms for the election under the APP.