Tonye Cole, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, has commented his reservation over the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission to obey court order directing it to release to the party the Certified True Copies of documents used in the governorship elections.
Tonye made this known when some party members visited INEC headquarters in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Friday.
The party members claimed that INEC is deliberately frustrating them from approaching the elections tribunal to prove their case, as they have only 21 days to file their petitions.
Cole told journalists,
“I am not happy at all. We have come to INEC to express our deep frustration about what is going on. Essentially, we are time-bound. We have 21 days from the time the elections were declared to file our petitions.”
“They have not released one single CTC document and we have to prepare a brief and prepare for the tribunal.”
“We have got court orders. They have been ignored. It tells me that something is going on. I believe that at this point in time the onus is on INEC as an independent election administrator to be fair. I am very suspicious.”
“We have made applications asking INEC Rivers State to oblige us of CTC of EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D and other related EC series as concerned elections. INEC has not been able to give us a single document. And what we are talking about is going to the Tribunal to seek redress. So what INEC is doing is intentional.
“I have here the court order compelling INEC to allow us to inspect documents, for them to give us the CTC. This order has been duly served on INEC. They have decided to disobey the law.”
“The INEC National Chairman and all security agencies should hear this. INEC should give us what we want because it is our right to file our petition and we must do so. If they don’t do that by Monday, we will barricade this place. No worker will enter here. They should be ready to kill all of us.”