Obey Court Order – PDP Supporters Tell RSIEC, Gov Fubara

• Reject LG poll, hit the streets
• No going back on polls – RSIEC

Ahead of Saturday, October 5 Local Government election in Rivers State, supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have staged a protest demanding that the Rivers State Electoral Commission (RSIEC) obeys the court order stopping the exercise.

Interestingly, the PDP supporters took their complaints to the Department of State Services (DSS) and Nigeria Police Headquarters in Port Harcourt, the State capital on Thursday morning.

Marching through Port Harcourt – Aba Road office of PDP, the protesters stormed through the Forces Avenue office of DSS to the Moscow Road Headquarters of the Nigerian Police  armed with placards carrying different inscriptions to convey their message.

Some of the inscriptions read thus; “RSIEC obey court order”; “Rivers State is not lawless”; “We no go gree..ooo!”; “Say no to impunity”; and “Rivers State belongs us all” among others.

At the Police Command, the protesters expressed their anger that despite an existing court order and judgement, the State electoral body is going ahead to conduct the election as planned.

According to one of the protesters, John Amadi, they received heartwarming news at DSS office with their promise that the Service would necessarily obey the court order barring them and the Police from providing any form of security during the election.

Amadi further stated that; “We are members of PDP and are here at DSS office to protest against the Saturday’s local government area election in Rivers State. There was a court judgement barring both the DSS and Police from providing security during the election.

“We want to let them know that PDP will not participate in the election and that the security agencies should equally obey the court order by not providing security for the election.”

Meanwhile, as uncertainty hovers around Saturday’s local government polls in the State, the Police and DSS have urged residents of Rivers State to maintain peace and shun taking laws into their hands.

The security advisory is coming against the backdrop of RSIEC’s insistence that there is no going back on the plans to conduct the election, which the All Progressives Congress (APC) and PDP said their candidates will not be participating based on the court order.

Referencing the planned election, Chief Tony Okocha-led faction of APC in Rivers State said the party would ensure the election does not hold, just as he faulted Governor Similanayi Fubara’s insistence on going ahead with the exercise.

Okocha said the APC would challenge what it described as the governor’s impunity in disobeying court orders, stressing that the local government election law stipulates a 90-day period for all political parties interested in the election to prepare for the election.

The APC factional Chairman maintained that Governor Fubara has deliberately violated the law by scheduling to hold the election within 30 days.