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The Rivers State Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), has urged residents to maintain peace as the state conducts its local government elections today.
Ibas made the appeal during a meeting with leaders of organised labour and Local Government Administrators at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
Voters across the 23 local government areas are casting their ballots at 6,866 polling units in an election taking place six months and two days after the Supreme Court annulled the previous poll of 5 October 2024 conducted by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC).
His appeal comes as some prominent Rivers indigenes have called on President Bola Tinubu to stop the elections. Five residents of the state have already taken the Federal Government, Ibas, and RSIEC to court over the exercise.
Speaking on Friday, the State Administrator declared: “All necessary arrangements have been made to ensure a safe and peaceful election.” He further urged residents to “please go out tomorrow (today) and exercise your civic responsibility without fear or intimidation.”
He reaffirmed his administration’s “unwavering commitment to transparency, staff welfare, and the successful conclusion of the ongoing staff verification exercise,” stressing that the timing was deliberate to highlight “the intrinsic link between accountable leadership and effective grassroots governance.”
According to him, “Tomorrow’s elections are an important step towards restoring democratic governance at the grassroots. But leaders can only be held accountable when there is clarity on the human and material resources available to them.”
Ibas noted that the comprehensive staff verification and biometric enrolment drive was designed to improve transparency and efficiency in both state and local government services. Presenting updates, he disclosed: “37,703 state staff verified, against a previous figure of over 43,000. 19,186 state pensioners verified, compared to over 25,500. 2,004 local government pensioners verified out of over 2,600. 8,000 local government staff verified across seven LGAs, including Obio/Akpor, Bonny, Etche, and Degema.”
He set September 4, 2025, as the deadline for completing all local government staff verification, vowing to deploy state resources to meet the target and stressing its necessity.
Meanwhile, RSIEC Chairman, Michael Odey, explained that the commission had followed through with its preparations, noting that plans were integrated into a timetable of events and that the process had now reached the implementation phase. He added that assessments of both riverine and upland LGAs had been carried out to guide logistics.
Speaking after a joint meeting with security chiefs, Odey disclosed that non-sensitive materials began leaving the commission for LGAs on Thursday, while sensitive materials would be distributed on Friday under police escort. He emphasised that ad hoc staff had been properly trained and that the commission was committed to delivering “free, fair, credible and transparent elections” on Saturday.
At the same meeting, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police gave assurances of security, stating: “These operations reflect a broader strategy to dismantle criminal networks and ensure public confidence in law enforcement agencies, especially as it concerns the upcoming chairmanship/councillorship election.”
