The All Progressives Congress (APC) has secured a sweeping victory in the Rivers State Local Government elections, clinching 20 out of the 23 chairmanship seats, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) managed to take the remaining three.
The results were announced in Port Harcourt by the Chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), Dr. Michael Odey, who declared the process largely successful despite widespread concerns.
Saturday’s election, however, was marked by a significant boycott from Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his loyalists, who shunned both voting and participation. The Governor, his Chief of Staff, Edison Ehie, and the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Tammy Danagogo, were all absent from the polls. Their absence followed mounting opposition to the exercise, with many political stakeholders and civil society groups earlier warning that any election conducted under the subsisting emergency rule in Rivers would be unconstitutional.
The development is rooted in the political crisis that has rocked the state since March, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers, suspending Governor Fubara and his deputy, and appointing Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd.) as the sole administrator. Critics have described the elections as a political manoeuvre to consolidate power around former Governor Nyesom Wike and his loyalists, many of whom contested under the APC platform.
Observers noted that the boycott by Fubara’s camp gave Wike’s faction a clear path to victory, further tilting the state’s political map in favour of the APC. While the PDP maintained its traditional strength in Obio/Akpor and two other local governments, the APC’s dominance across 20 councils underscores a dramatic shift in Rivers’ political landscape.
Meanwhile, opposition voices have rejected the exercise as lacking credibility, arguing that the state of emergency and the suspension of the Governor undermined free participation. Civil society groups are already calling for legal redress, raising the possibility of another round of litigation.
As Rivers braces for the aftermath of the polls, the outcome appears to have reshaped the balance of power, entrenching APC dominance while deepening the rift between the rival political camps of Fubara and Wike.