The All Progressives Congress has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of conspiring with the Rivers state Peoples Democratic Party to hinder the course of justice in the election petitions it filed at the tribunal.
Lai Mohammed
The APC described the petition written to President Muhammadu Buhari by the sixteen PDP federal lawmakers from the state over the state’s governorship election petition tribunal as deceitful, obstructionist and provocative.
The party said that those who are blatantly obstructing the course of justice are the same people now trying to play the victim.
It assured that the party will use all constitutional and legal means to ensure that justice prevails, This Day reports.
The party’s national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said in a statement on Thursday, August 27, that despite the order from the tribunal, the damnable duo of state PDP and the INEC have teamed up to ensure that the state APC neither gets the certified true copies of requested documents nor inspect the electoral materials used for the governorship elections in Rivers.
The party scribe said: “Because we are a law-abiding party, unlike the anarchists in the PDP and their flagrant INEC collaborators, we reported this to the tribunal, which then said it was not up to it to enforce the order given earlier. This was why we reported to the security agencies, especially the police and the Department of State Security (DSS).
“Even though the Inspector General of Police intervened to ensure that the order of the tribunal was carried out, the Rivers state INEC still refused. This was why the DSS, seeking to prevent a breakdown of law and order that could result from the intransigence of the Rivers State INEC, now invited the obstructionists to impress it upon them to carry out the order of the tribunal. Despite these efforts, the order has still not been complied with till today,” he said.
The APC in the statement also denied that the military was being used to intimidate anyone, saying the party only subpoenaed the soldiers who played a major role in the elections not only in the state but in the entire Niger Delta region in view of the violence unleashed by the PDP on APC supporters before, during and after the Rivers elections.
Mohammed said: ‘’Nigerians can now see that there is no truth whatsoever in the petition written by the intrusive Rivers state PDP senators and House of Representatives members who the DSS and the military were being used to obstruct justice. What the petitioners are seeking to do is to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians.’’
He said it was an open secret that the PDP rigged the elections not only in Rivers state but also in Akwa Ibom, where the party and the state INEC have also refused to give the APC access to electoral materials.
The party said: “Knowing well that they cooked the figures, and that their figures cannot hold up in the face of serious scrutiny, the Rivers State PDP has resorted to using all the tricks in the books to delay the proceedings at the tribunal, hoping that by so doing, the statutory 180 days we have to prove our case will expire.
“It was for the same reason that they (Rivers PDP and their INEC collaborators) tried to goad us to file contempt charges against them for their refusal to obey the Tribunal’s order. They had hoped that by filing such charges, valuable time would have been wasted.
“The PDP has always been a lawless and anarchic party. This is why they think others are like them. In pursuing our petition at the tribunal, we do not seek any favour beyond what the law prescribes. But we will not fold our arms and allow anyone to bury us under the ruble of injustice.”
Mohammed advised the PDP lawmakers to convey to their people to stop constituting an obstacle to the course of justice by allowing the Rivers APC access to the election materials instead of writing frivolous petitions and blaming the victims of their lawlessness.
Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission began a probe into the administration of the former governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi.
The probe is based on a petition by a Port Harcourt-based group, the Integrity Group, which on July 29 wrote to the EFCC detailing three instances of alleged corruption, graft and abuse of office under Amaechi’s government.
No comments:
Post a Comment