JUST IN: Election Tribunal Relocates With Strong Reason

JUST IN: Election Tribunal Relocates With Strong Reason

The Elections Petition Tribunal has been relocated from Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, to Abuja due to the state’s current insecurity.

The latest development was revealed to journalists in Port Harcourt by the Tribunal’s Secretary, Abubakar Umar. He explained that the decision was made in response to petitions from stakeholders claiming that the state is unsafe for the petitioners, lawyers, and witnesses.

The tribunal’s relocation to Abuja comes more than two weeks after it began sitting at the River State judiciary complex in Port Harcourt.

The tribunal received 76 petitions within the statutory time limit from various political parties and candidates who ran in the state’s recent general elections. The parties and candidates are contesting the results of the elections won by PDP candidates.

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The PDP won all three Senate seats, 12 of the 13 House Representative seats, and all 32 seats in the state House of Assembly.

According to our source, the relocation of the Tribunal’s sitting to Abuja came as no surprise to political observers both inside and outside the state.

Some parts of the state have been insecure for the past three weeks. For example, rival cult gang clashes have resulted in deaths in areas such as Diobu, the heart of Port Harcourt. The PDP has taken over the front office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Rivers State, insisting that they be allowed to jointly inspect INEC materials used for the election with other political parties.

Okey Wali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, a former Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in Rivers State, and an Ex-President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, was kidnapped on Monday this week along the East-West road near Port Harcourt. His kidnapping occurred following a gunfight between his security aides and the kidnappers. Two people were killed in the incident, and the abductors managed to escape with their main target, Wali.

Additionally, within the week, the Nigerian Armed Forces raided the Rundele community in Emohua local government area in search of two rifles and Army uniforms stolen by illegal oil thieves. Throughout the military operations, properties were set on fire, and residents were forced to flee their homes.

Above all, Tonye Cole, the APC Governorship candidate, had his two SUV cars vandalized in broad daylight by political thugs who blocked him from entering the INEC office to meet his scheduled appointment to collect Certified True Copies CTC of Electoral materials after sporadic shooting.

The arrest and detention of three lawyers hired by the APC to file its petition at the Tribunal preceded the physical assault on Cole. It took the intervention and outrage of the NBA’s national leadership for the lawyers arrested in their hotels to be released.

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