By Divine Sam
Protests erupted at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, ahead of the Local Government election scheduled for October 5, 2024. Demonstrators, concerned about the delayed release of the 2023 Voters’ Register by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), clashed with security forces, prompting interventions to manage the situation and control traffic.
The unrest follows a recent ruling by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, which prohibited INEC from releasing the voters’ register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) due to ongoing legal disputes. Despite this, Governor Siminalayi Fubara asserted that the election would proceed as planned, citing a Supreme Court ruling that mandates all states to have democratically elected local government executives.