By Ayomide Otitoju
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Monday rejected opposition criticism of the recently conducted local government elections in Rivers State, insisting that the exercise was lawful and credible.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi had faulted the polls, describing them as illegal. But Wike, speaking during a media parley, said no court had declared the elections unlawful and maintained that they were widely commended as free and fair.
“Listen, I don’t blame Atiku; he didn’t know that his boss signed the emergency rule in 2004. If he knew, if he was obedient and working with his boss, [former] President Olusegun Obasanjo, he would have known that the President has the power to make regulations for the governance of emergency areas,” Wike said.
He further criticised Atiku’s political history, pointing to his movement across parties since 1999. Turning to Obi, Wike argued that the former Anambra governor lacked the moral right to comment on election conduct, noting that he only organised council polls near the end of his eight-year tenure.
“Obi said rascality. Who can be more of a rascal than Obi? He was governor for eight years and conducted local government elections just two months before leaving office,” Wike stated.
The former Rivers governor also suggested that the opposition leaders’ anger stemmed from the loss of Rivers State as a political funding base.
“Their anger is that they are looking for where they will get funding, and now it’s no longer available in Rivers State,” he said.
Wike praised security agencies and the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for ensuring peaceful polls. “For the first time in our history, no gunshots, no ballot box snatching, no kidnapping of returning officers,” he said, stressing that only a court could declare the exercise illegal.
The elections, held on Saturday across 23 local government areas, were supervised by RSIEC. On Sunday, the commission declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) winners in 20 councils, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured three seats.
