By Damilare Adeleye
Today is an election period in four states in Nigeria. Eligible voters in Rivers, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Jigawa will be heading to polling stations in there respective states to elect their preferred candidates to fill the chairmanship and councillorship seats.
The elections are holding on the heel of deadline given by the federal government for states to have elected officers at the affairs of local government administration. Recall that the Supreme Court has barred the federal government from releasing allocations to local governments governed by unelected officials.The apex court gave the order while delivering judgment in the local government autonomy suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on behalf of the Nigerian Government.
It was learnt that the federal government, however, shifted the implementation of the ruling till October 31st, 2024 to allow states to hold local government elections.
Many states of the federation including Anambra, Kwara, Adamawa, Delta, Sokoto, Kaduna, Yobe, and Kebbi have previously held their local council polls in recent weeks.
Anxiety is in the polity of the four states holding local government elections today. There are fears that the ruling parties in the four states would still sweep all the council seats like the previous ones.
Political analysts have predicted that the elections would not be different from the recently held exercises where state governors, to a large extent, determined winners. Meanwhile, the situation in Rivers is dicey considering the twists and turns in the polity ahead of today’s election.
Pundits believed 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 loyalists to the party ahead of the poll. Recall that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have both withdrawn from the exercise, citing court order.
In Benue, the main opposition party, 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.
In Akwa Ibom State, the PDP will slug it out with APC and other opposition parties. Similarly, in Jigawa State, the police command has imposed restrictions on all forms of vehicular movement from 12am on Saturday, October 5, 2024 to 6pm on Saturday, except for those on essential services or duties.