APC Accuses INEC In Rivers State Of Sabotaging Election Petitions

All Peoples Congress (APC) leaders in Rivers State have submitted a letter to the acting chairperson of Nigeria’s electoral commission, Amina Zakari, to demand that the body’s Port Harcourt office release materials from the state’s elections in April of this year.

The state’s APC leadership accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in the Rivers State capital of seeking to sabotage its election petitions, which expire in less than three months, by deliberately delaying the release of electoral materials.

While delivering the letter to the INEC office in Abuja yesterday, the petitioners, among whom was the unsuccessful APC candidate for governor in Rivers State, were tear-gassed by security officers.

Under the 1999 Constitution, electoral petitions must be determined within 180 days. The APC’s petitions in Rivers State were filed shortly after April’s elections, leaving less than three months before the constitutional deadline.

The letter, which is dated August 11th, follows a decision by the Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja to reexamine Rivers State’s election materials. In response to the APC’s initial April petitions, the tribunal ordered that the INEC office in Port Harcourt release these materials for inspection by forensic experts. The APC’s letter called the delay “highly worrisome.”

“The unavoidable conclusion to be drawn from the conduct of the Commmission so far, is that the Commission has so much to hide,” the letter read.

Copies of the letter were sent to the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, and Lawal Musa Daura, the Director General of the Department of State Services.

source: Sahara Reporters