The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has defended the legality of the recently conducted local government elections in Rivers State, insisting that the polls were conducted within the framework of emergency rule and backed by constitutional provisions.
Speaking during a media chat in Abuja, Wike refuted criticisms from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, accusing them of political mischief and ignorance of the law.
“Under emergency rule, certain aspects of the law are suspended to allow governance. The sole administrators act on behalf of the president, and funds are made available in line with Supreme Court pronouncements,” Wike explained.
The former Rivers State governor argued that Atiku lacked the legal grounding to challenge the elections, noting that amendments to emergency powers had been signed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as far back as 2004.
“What you don’t know, don’t comment about. This is law, not customs. Atiku does not have the knowledge,” Wike said pointedly.
Speaking to Obi, Wike scoffed at his description of the polls as “rascality.”
He said, “Who can be more of a rascal than Obi? As governor for eight years, he only conducted an election two months before leaving office. Doctors were on strike for 13 months under him. He has no moral authority to lecture anyone on democracy,” Wike stated.
Wike dismissed concerns that the election results reflected an alliance between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as unfounded.
“Every election has its peculiarity. What matters is that, for the first time in our history, we saw peaceful elections—no gunshots, no hijacking of ballot boxes, no kidnapping of returning officers. If APC and PDP worked together in Rivers, then Nigerians should commend us for achieving that,” he said.
