Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have strongly condemned the conduct of the local government elections in Rivers State, describing the exercise as unlawful, illegitimate, and a brazen mockery of democracy.
Atiku, in a statement on X, blasted what he called an “occupation government” in Rivers State, accusing the ruling APC of staging an “awful absurdity and travesty to the very notion of elective democracy.” He argued that the shambolic conduct of the polls exposed the party’s desperation for inordinate political advantage, warning that the development signaled a troubling descent under the Tinubu administration. He further urged opposition parties in Rivers to reject the elections, insisting that the body that conducted the exercise lacked legal legitimacy.
“The shameful and shambolic manner in which the occupation government went ahead to conduct local government elections in Rivers State leaves no doubt that the APC is prepared to throw caution to the wind. It therefore becomes necessary to call the attention of well-meaning Nigerians, the international community, and all friends and partners of Nigeria to the dangerous curve that the Tinubu regime is taking our country,” Atiku declared, while pledging solidarity with Rivers people whom he described as “victims of political brigandry.”
Peter Obi, in his reaction, denounced the elections as “rascality taken too far,” stressing that a sole administrator, himself illegally appointed, had no business conducting elections designed to empower the people. “This is not democracy; it is the outright desecration of its very foundation,” Obi said, warning that the conduct undermines the rule of law and threatens governance at its most fundamental level.
He added that “illegality can never give birth to legitimacy. Any structure erected on a foundation of lawlessness is a danger to both the state and the people. We cannot pretend to practise democracy while silencing the will of the people, especially at the grassroots, where democracy matters most.” Obi concluded by stressing that the sanctity of the ballot must be defended and leadership must always flow from the people’s mandate, not contraptions that mock democratic values.