Fubara: Police colluding with opposition to disrupt Rivers LG elections

Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers, says the police are colluding with “enemies of the state” to disrupt Saturday’s local government election.

Earlier today, the Rivers police command said its officers would not provide security for the conduct of the local government election in the state.

In a thread on X, Fubara accused police officers in the state and those from the force headquarters in Abuja of being “in cahoots with forces aligned against our state to create a state of anarchy”.

“This morning, l addressed a press conference  alerting  the world on the conspiratorial  plot  by some officers & men of the policeNG from both the State command & the Force HQ, Abuja who are in cahoots with forces aligned against our State to create a state of anarchy,” he said.

“This was sequel to the unwholesome invasion of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission office at the early hours of today, Friday, October 4, 2024.

“The reason for their invasion was to break into the RSIEC offices and cart away sensitive election materials with the intention of truncating the LGA elections scheduled for tomorrow Saturday, October 5, 2024.

“However, the courage and boldness of Rivers people who joined us to resist the dastardly act, saved the situation. The World  press conference afforded us the opportunity of reassuring our people that the election will hold despite the withdrawal of @PoliceNG, with the excuse of being in possession of a federal High Court judgment barring its officers from participating in election duties.

“We strongly believe that other security agencies are participating and will provide the necessary security coverage for the voters.”

On September 30, a federal high court in Abuja barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the 2023 voter register to RSIEC.

The court also barred the inspector-general of police and the Department of State Services (DSS) from providing security for the election in the state.

On October 2, INEC said it had not released the voter register to RSIEC for the conduct of the election, in deference to the judgment of the federal high court.