Police Warn Against Violence Ahead of Rivers Council Elections

The Rivers State Police Command has vowed to clamp down on cultists and troublemakers seeking to disrupt the August 30 local council elections in the state.
State Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Adepoju, disclosed this in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, assuring residents that security agencies were fully prepared to ensure a peaceful and credible exercise.
Adepoju announced restrictions on human and vehicular movements from midnight on Friday until 6:00 p.m. on Election Day, adding that only those on essential duties would be exempted.
“You are all aware that on the 30th of this month, we are going to have the local council elections. We have done all due diligence to ensure that it is going to be peaceful,” the commissioner said.
He explained that the command had been engaging with stakeholders across the state and had directed sole administrators in the local councils to hold sensitisation meetings, which he said had yielded positive responses.
Adepoju stressed that the police, as the lead agency, would work alongside other security outfits to guarantee a free, fair, and credible election.
Meanwhile, the Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Simeon Chibuzor Amadi, on Tuesday constituted and swore in chairmen and members of the Local Government Election Petition Tribunals for the state’s three senatorial districts.
For Rivers East, Chief Magistrate Kilsi Giadom was appointed chairman, with Promise Green and Christian John Jaja as members. In the South-East district, Chief Magistrate Harry Sotonye Linda will serve as chairman, alongside Anthony Enyinda and Azubuike Georgewill as members. For Rivers West, Chief Magistrate Chimenem Okekem was named chairman, with Israel Dagogo Israel and Ala Atonibere as members.
Justice Amadi, after administering the oath of office, charged the tribunal members to be fearless, firm, and unbiased in the discharge of their duties, stressing that their work was crucial to the integrity of the electoral process.
However, the 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, criticised the planned elections, arguing that conducting them during a “state of emergency” under sole administrators undermines democratic principles.
Speaking on Arise TV’s Morning Show, Cole said: “I personally feel that having that election in the time of a state of emergency, under a sole administrator, says everything wrong about democracy. If you have suspended all the democratic institutions, then let’s know we have suspended them for whatever reason. You cannot be having elections under that cover. Even the perception of it is wrong.”
Cole further alleged that the elections were a political plot to capture council structures, warning that the move could set a dangerous precedent for democracy in Nigeria.