•Issues 72 hours ultimatum to commission to release vital documents

By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State chapter, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of deliberately delaying release of relevant documents the party has applied for to enable it to file petitions at the Elections Petitions Tribunal in connection with the National Assembly elections in the state.

APC attributed the delay to an alleged unholy alliance between INEC and the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aimed at denying APC the opportunity of filing its petitions with the Election tribunal within time.

The aggrieved party has, therefore, given the Commission 72 hours to comply with its request, threatening to block the entrance of the Commission if it fails to meet its demand at the expiration of the ultimatum.

Drawing the attention of the public to what it described as unethical connivance of Mr Mike Odeh, the INEC Head of Operations in Rivers State, with the PDP, through its Publicity Secretary, Darlington Nwauju, Rivers APC said the party had applied for the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C and other documents incidental to the recently conducted National Assembly elections in the state in which results were mutilated and or forged in favour of the PDP in areas where APC clearly won.

Nwauju, in a statement made available toNews Express, said the party would have emerged victorious in the National Assembly poll if results were uploaded from polling units.

“Our candidates should have been declared winners if INEC had kept its promise of uploading results from the polling units to the iREV portal.

“Instructively, the said Head of Operations, Mr Odeh, against both the civil service rules, INEC guidelines and the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended), has consciously and viciously erected a wall to ensure he frustrates the moves of the APC in Rivers State to retrieve the stolen mandates of our National Assembly candidates by refusing to release the relevant documents earlier listed, which are at the heart of prosecuting our petitions at the Elections Petitions Tribunal, knowing too well that election petitions are sui generis or time-bound.

“Meaning that the Head of Operations is in cahoots with the PDP in Rivers State to frustrate all election petitions and allow the PDP walk away with stolen mandates,” Nwauju noted.

The statement added: “This brazen show of hate for our party is even in the face of the endorsement/approvals already granted our party to access these documents by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and the Administrative Officer of INEC in Rivers State.”

He explained that the party chose to alert the public because it's a law-abiding political party, stressing: “The APC in Rivers State has lost confidence in the Head of Operations, Mr Mike Odeh, and demands his immediate investigation and prosecution for single-handedly uprooting the independence status of the INEC and for putting his selfish interest against the public good.

“We hereby issue a 72 hours notice to the INEC headquarters to direct that these documents be released to the APC, Rivers State chapter, failing which we shall have no other option than to mount a blockade on the State office of the INEC in Port Harcourt until our rights are granted as a political party,” the party warned.