Ahoada LG chair assumes office despite attacks on council secretariats

Chibudom Hezekiah, chairman of Ahoada LGA in Rivers, assumed office on Monday despite attacks on council secretariats in the state.

Hezekiah and councillors in the LGA visited the council secretariat with a crowd of supporters.

At least three local government secretariats in Rivers state were set on fire by hoodlums on Monday.

Following the incidents, President Bola Tinubu directed Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector-general of police (IGP), to restore security and maintain peace, law, and order in the state.

On Sunday, Siminalayi Fubara, the governor of Rivers, swore in 23 newly elected LGA chairpersons after the conduct of the election on Saturday.

The Action Peoples Party (APP) won 22 LGAs in the election, while the Action Alliance (AA) claimed one.

Fubara’s loyalists joined APP weeks before the election to secure the party’s tickets to contest the poll.

Speaking to journalists after entering the council secretariat, Hezekiah claimed that a former LGA boss had tried to block his access to the office.

“When we came in, we met the former council chairman with some securities trying to disturb the environment. Although at a point they left,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, the IGP ordered personnel to withdraw from the 23 council secretariats in the state.

THE CONTROVERSIAL ELECTION

Fubara and Nyesom Wike, his predecessor and minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), are locked in a supremacy battle over the control of the political structure in the state.

The build-up to the Rivers LGA elections was marked by controversy, fueled by conflicting court rulings.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also opposed the conduct of the poll.

On September 4, a high court in Rivers held that Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) could conduct the LGA elections using the 2023 voter register.

But on September 30, a federal high court in Abuja barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the voter register to RSIEC.

The court also barred the IGP and the Department of State Services (DSS) from providing security for the elections.

The election was eventually conducted without a voter register and police security.