The All Progressives Congress (APC) faction loyal to Chief Tony Okocha, one of the sacked Caretaker Committee Chairman, has announced its withdrawal from the October 5, 2024, Local Government elections in Rivers State.
Okocha made the announcement during an enlarged APC stakeholders’ meeting in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, citing irregularities in the election process.
He claimed the party was excluded from stakeholders’ meetings and that the decision to conduct the election was made without their input.
Okocha also revealed that the party had gone to court to stop the election process, insisting that the APC cannot participate in an election that violates the law.
“The topical issue we have to discuss is the issue of the APC contesting local government elections on the 5th of October. That is one thing you would like to hear. We are in court and I will not speak in any matter that is in court.
“The most I can say to you is that the cause of action is to restrain the agencies that will conduct that election which they announce behind us.
“We are not part of the decisions to conduct an election on the 5th of October. We went on air on the 19th of January, if I remember, to tell the INEC Chairman and the commission to convey the process of having that local government election.
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“At that time, it was still within the ambits of the laws of the state, because the law says three months to the expiration of the life of a chairman or tenure of the council.
“That law now, as we speak, will not work. You cannot conduct local government elections in Rivers State without a party like APC. I know too that PDP is not even in the race, so what we see is just a drama,” he said.
He stated further, “The day the commission held the stakeholders’ meeting, I was not invited. The APC Rivers State was not invited to the meeting where the decision for the October 5 election was taken.
“So we cannot participate in that election because there was a deliberate plan to make us worthless, so we went to court.
“We are not saying we wouldn’t contest the election, our contention is until the process is in tandem with the law and that we as a party are also carried along in the entire arrangement.”
This development follows Okocha’s sacking by the Rivers State High Court on July 12, 2024, and the subsequent support from the APC National Working Committee.
The meeting was attended by loyalists of Magnus Abe, including Wilson Ake and Wogu Boms, a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state.
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