President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, October 7, 2024, urged Governor Siminalayi Fubara, political leaders and their supporters in Rivers State to exercise restraint and uphold the rule of law.

He urged the political actors and their supporters to settle their differences in court, saying, “Self-help has no place in a democratic system.”

The President’s admonition follows reports of arson and vandalism of public facilities in Rivers State after last Saturday’s local government elections.

In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the President ordered the police to guard public facilities to “restore and maintain peace, law and order immediately.”

The statement is titled, ‘President Tinubu decries violence in Rivers, directs police to provide security to local government offices.’

The Action People’s Party, APP, dominated the recent local government elections in the state when it secured 314 out of 319 councillorship seats across the state’s 23 local government areas.

The Chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, Justice Adolphus Enebeli, announced the results in Port Harcourt on Sunday.

According to the RSIEC, the APP won 314 wards, while the All Progressives Congress, APC, Labour Party, LP, Social Democratic Party, SDP, and Young People’s Party, YPP, each clinched one seat.

The Rivers State PDP and the APC factions rejected the conduct and outcome of the election on Sunday, saying no election held on Saturday.

The Rivers PDP loyal to the former Governor, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, vowed to challenge the results in court.
|SituationReport|