APC wins 22 council seats in Rivers polls

•Protest in Khana as DPP candidate calls for cancellation

The All Progressives Congress (APC) won 22 of the 23 chairmanship seats in last Saturday’s local government election in Rivers State.

The State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) Chief Returning Officer, Prof Austin Ahiauzu, declared the results last night.

He said APC won 22 of the 23 local government areas.

The Returning Officer said the election was peaceful because it was transparent.

Prof Ahiauzu said APC won 297 councillorship seats in the 302 wards while other political parties won the rest.

In Ahoada East’s wards 8 and 10, the People for Democratic Change (PDC) was declared winners of the councillorship seats.

The PDC councilor–elect in Ahoada East’s Ward 10, Mrs. Royal Onukwube, told our reporter that the time had come for people to be elected into positions of power without sentiments about their political parties.

She thanked RSIEC and APC leadership for not being biased against other political parties that participated in the election.

She noted that her victory was an indication that RSIEC conducted a transparent election.

At Khana Local Government Area, the Democratic People Party (DPP) candidate, Comrade Fredick Gogorobari James, urged RSIEC to nullify the chairmanship election in the area for alleged lack of transparency.

He alleged that APC’s chairmanship-elect, Celestine Akpobari, won with the collaboration of “thugs”.