Again the struggle for the soul of Rivers State among the political actors in the state has returned to the grassroots following the Friday ruling of the Supreme Court.
Among the crucial decisions of the apex court in the ruling was the nullification of the October 5 2024 local government election conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC over non-compliance to some stipulated regulations.
Since the same Supreme Court had ealier outlawed the use of caretaker committees to run the local government councils across the country, Governor Siminalayi Fubara in his wisdom directed the Heads of Local Government Administration in their various locations to take charge of the running of their respective local councils pending the conduct of another election.
However, it may not be as simple as the Governor might have envisaged given the complex nature of political interest in the state.
It was gathered late Sunday evening that security agencies, particularly the police had started discreet deployment of men of the force at strategic locations close to the local government headquarters across the state to avert a repeat of what happened last year when hoodlums invaded some local government secretariats and set them on fire following the removal of council chairmen who claimed tenure elongation by the state House of Assembly.
Although The Trumpet could not confirm the police deployment, there are however fears of possible clash at the various councils by political opponents seeking to take advantage of the Supreme Court decision to assert control over the councils.
While Governor Fubara is positioning Heads of Local Government Administration to take charge of running the councils, it has been reliably gathered that other two sets of claimants are warming up to appear at the council headquarters on Monday (today) to assert authority to run the councils.
Apart from the chairmen who took office during the tenure of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, minister, Nyesom Wike as Governor of the state whose tenure was extended for six months by the Martin Amaewhule led State House of Assembly renewing their claim that the Supreme Court had given life to the tenure extension by restoring Martins Amaewhule as Speaker, another set of chairmen who were elected in 2015 during the administration of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as Governor are also said to be warming up to assert control over the council following their recent court victory at the Court of Appeal.
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As the Supreme Court was delivering its ruling on Friday which restored Martins Amaewhule and others to the state House of Assembly, the Court of Appeal also upheld the appeal by the Amaechi chairmen who Nyesom.Wike had forcefully removed from office while their tenure was still running when he became Governor in 2015.
The Court of Appeal had trashed the Federal High Court handling of the matter and restored the mandate of the Amaechi chairmen.
So on Monday March 3, 2025, there may be a replay of the Ides of June 2024 at the local councils in the state, which this time will conform with the popular Shakespearian Ides of March as the different forces flex muscles over who controls grassroots politics in the state.
It may yet be a long journey to finally determine which authority should man the 23 local councils in the state. While the tussles subsists, the police may again be drafted to occupy the councils pending the resolution of the plethora issues arising.
As it appears, the political crisis in the state has just returned to square one, even with the pendancy of the defection suit at the Federal High Court.
The casualty in the whole drama remains the peace and development of the oil rich state which has started gaining some stability in the last one year.
But that stroke of judgement by the Supreme Court has upturned the recent gains. Rivers State has rightly become Nigeria’ s hotbed of politics.