The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State said it is considering approaching a court of competent jurisdiction to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to produce Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents used in the last governorship election at the tribunal. The party disclosed that seven of its House of Assembly candidates have successfully filed their applications at the state election petition tribunal. APC Publicity Secretary Darlington Nwauju revealed this during a telephone interview on Sunday evening, although he could not specify the constituencies of the assembly candidates.
INEC had declared the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winners of the 32 state assembly seats and the three senatorial seats. The APC’s governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, encountered a brick wall when trying to secure CTC documents from INEC headquarters in Port Harcourt. His last attempt to obtain the documents almost led to him being mobbed by alleged PDP supporters, sparking a series of protests by PDP members and supporters.
Nwauju stated, “Seven or eight assembly candidates have filed their petitions.” Regarding the governorship candidate, he said the party had not yet filed a petition but was considering other options. One of the APC’s lawyers, Dr. Godswill Dike, who was allegedly kidnapped, later said that after his release he handed over the CTC he had collected from INEC to a party member. However, APC 2023 governorship campaign council spokesman Sogbeye Eli told reporters that the CTC was hijacked from Dike by suspected PDP chieftains.
When asked whether the party would use the CTC to file a petition, Nwauju replied, “We have not filed. Are we not going to use the CTC to file? When we get to court, we can explain our difficulties and move a motion to compel INEC to produce the documents. During the last election petition tribunal, that is what happened. It is a means of obtaining the same documents.”
Dr. Dike, who regained his freedom last week, corroborated Nwauju’s view and added that the documents can be obtained online. He explained, “Those documents are also online. The party could still explore the option of getting soft copies. They are public documents; we can reapply, pay for the CTCs, and authorities will issue us the true certified copies of the election materials. We can file without those documents and, at the end of the day, subpoena—call a witness to court to tender documents or testify.” He continued, “By doing this, we can call on INEC to come to court and tender the documents. The petitions we filed were obtained online, so when dealing with administrability, we can bring INEC to tender the documents the law will accept.”
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