Two Nigerian political gladiators have come down heavily on the conduct of elections into Chairmanship and councillorship position in Rivers State held on Saturday.
Former vice president and chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, while reacting, has condemned the just concluded local government elections in Rivers State as an absurdity and travesty of democracy.
He also described the election as shameful and shambolic, while calling on the opposition political parties in Rivers State to reject the outcome of the election.
In a statement, the former vice-president said, ”The local government election conducted by the occupation government in Rivers State is an awful absurdity and a travesty to the very notion of elective democracy.
”By the shameful and shambolic manner in which the occupation government went ahead to conduct local government elections in Rivers State, it is clear that the ruling APC party is not leaving anyone in doubt that it is prepared to throw caution to the wind in order to achieve an inordinate political advantage.
”It, therefore, becomes necessary to call the attention of well-meaning Nigerians. international community and all friends and partners of Nigeria to the dangerous curve that the President Bola Tinubu regime is taking our dear country.
”I will also call on all opposition parties in Rivers State to reject the local government election on the premise that the occupation government that conducted the exercise is extraneous to our laws, with absolutely no legitimacy to undertake such a crucial and sensitive assignment.
”In the same breath, I wish to share my unflinching solidarity with the good people of Rivers State, who are currently victims of political brigandry to a power cabal which is bent on overturning their democratic rights at all cost.”
However, former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, also condemned the conduct of the Rivers State local government election, describing it as “a desecration of democracy” and a dangerous precedent for governance in Nigeria.
All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, won 20 chairmanship seats while Peoples Democratic Party picked three chairmanship slots of the 23 local government councils in the elections which held on Saturday, August 30, 2025.
Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd) supervised the conduct of the election, but the suspended Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and his supporters boycotted the elections.
In a post on his X handle on Sunday, Obi faulted the exercise, which was supervised by a sole administrator whose appointment has been the subject of controversy.
He argued that the process stripped the people of their constitutional right to choose their leaders and instead entrenched illegality.
“The conduct of the Rivers State local government election is rascality taken too far,” Obi declared.
“It represents a double tragedy for our democracy when a sole administrator—himself illegally appointed—dares to conduct an election that should empower the people. This is not democracy; it is the outright desecration of its very foundation.”
He stressed that such actions are unconstitutional, morally indefensible, and legally untenable, warning that “illegality can never give birth to legitimacy.”
According to him, any governance structure erected on lawlessness endangers both the state and its citizens.
Obi urged political leaders to return to the path of democratic accountability by upholding the sanctity of the ballot and safeguarding the people’s right to choose, especially at the grassroots level where governance impacts citizens most directly.
“We cannot pretend to practise democracy while silencing the will of the people,” he wrote, adding that true progress could only be achieved when leaders derive their mandate from the people’s votes rather than from “contraptions that mock democracy.”
The Rivers poll has generated widespread debate, with legal experts and civic groups warning that the frequent use of caretaker or sole administrators in place of elected councils undermines constitutional governance.
Obi’s intervention, observers say, underscores growing calls for reforms to secure local government autonomy and restore trust in Nigeria’s electoral process.
