Fides Media Living the Faith
By Sunny A. Ijomah
Members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State continued their protest in Port Harcourt, the state capital, last Tuesday at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the inspection of materials used in the last general elections.
Tuesday’s protest was joined by more state assembly members, including the Leader of the House, Martins Amaewhule, alongside the Deputy Speaker, Edison Ehie and Chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Area, Samuel Nwanosike.
In addition to the demands for joint inspection of electoral material and issuance of Certified True Copies of result sheets, the PDP demanded the arrest of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, for alleged murder.
They accused Cole of leading thugs to attack them during the protest on Monday, allegedly leading to the death of one person.
They said the party had submitted a petition to the Commissioner of Police, seeking the arrest and prosecution of Cole.
They also presented an acknowledged copy of the PDP’s petition dated March 24, 2023, in which the party demanded that INEC release the Certified True Copies of election materials.
They said the protest would be sustained to avoid a 2016 situation where evidence from the police was reportedly used to upturn the electoral victories of the PDP in the state at the Appeal Court and a similar situation in Imo State where Governor Hope Uzodimma was reportedly declared the winner of the Governorship Election on the evidence of the police.
They argued that some corrupt police officials might have typically given fake evidence to the APC through the contact they had, when their lawyers were arrested recently, to pass same to some corrupt INEC officials to substitute for the original results at the INEC office.
Efforts to get Cole’s reaction on the fresh allegation of murder by the PDP were not successful as of press time.