A day to the deadline for aggrieved candidates to file their petitions at election tribunals, another attempt by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Tonye Cole, to secure Certified True Copy (CTC) of the election result needed to file its case, again failed.
This followed continued protest by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters on the premises of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), where Cole tried in vain for days to procure certified results. APC failed because it could not have access to Commission’s office, which has been occupied by the PDP supporters.
The supporters laid siege to the office along Port Harcourt/Aba road in Port Harcourt. They were led by the Ikwerre Council Chairman, Samuel Nwanosike. They alleged that some officials of the Commission were sneaking electoral documents out to members of APC in the state.
The PDP protesters, who have occupied the INEC office since Monday, were said to have shot into the air to scare away people before barricading the office of the electoral umpire. INEC staff members were locked in and could not exit their offices at the time of filing this report.
It was also gathered that some INEC officials, out of fear, handed over some documents to the PDP chiefs.
But, the Cole campaign organisation says it has filed its petitions at the tribunal. Director, Media and Strategic Communications of the campaign council, Wabiye Indonimoboye, confirmed this to newsmen yesterday. He said: “What PDP was doing was to delay us from filing our petition on time but we were smarter, while they were at INEC office doing drama, we filed our case.”
(Guardian)
