Acting chairman of the APC in Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha has said he is not aware of any plans by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RISIEC, to conduct elections in the state on October 5 this year.
Okocha told TNN in a telephone interview on Monday that the electoral body never invited his party to any meeting where the decision to conduct an election on the said date was taken.
But spokesperson of RISIEC, Sarah Amgbare, who was contacted over the telephone on Monday said all political parties were invited to the meeting. But when asked if the APC was in attendance, she rather chose to become confrontational in her response.
RISIEC announced the date on Monday. This came some days after the governor, Sim Fubara, had given the indication that the caretaker committee he put in place to oversee the local governments would not last in the office, as there were plans to conduct an election in no distant time.
The October 5 date given by RISIEC is in line with the legal requirement of three months notice before an election can be conducted for all the seats in the 23 local governments.
