Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
The Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Port Harcourt has been moved from Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital to Abuja due to the prevailing insecurity in the state.
The latest development was disclosed to journalists in Port Harcourt by the Secretary to the Tribunal, Abubakar Umar. He explained that the decision followed petitions from stakeholders that the state is insecure for the petitioners, lawyers and witnesses.
The movement to Abuja comes more than two weeks after the tribunal started sitting at the River State judiciary complex in Port Harcourt.
Within the statutory time limit, the tribunal received 76 petitions from different political parties and candidates that participated in the just conducted general elections in the state. The parties and candidates are challenging the outcome of the elections that the candidates of the PDP won.
The PDP won all the three Senatorial seats,12 out the 13 seats in the House Representatives and all the 32 seats in the state House of Assembly.
Our Correspondent reports that the relocation of sitting of the Tribunal to Abuja did not a surprise to political observers in and outside the state.
For more three weeks,some parts of the state have been embroiled in insecurity. For instance,there have been rival cult gang clashes resulting to deaths in area like Diobu,the heart of Port Harcourt. There is the occupation of the front office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, office in Rivers State by members of the PDP who had been insisting that they they must be allowed to jointly inspect INEC materials used for the election with other political parties.
On Monday this week, Okey Wali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria,SAN,a former Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in Rivers State,an Ex-President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, was kidnapped along the East-West road near Port Harcourt. His kidnap was after a gunfight between his security aides and the kidnappers. Two persons lost their lives in the incident, while the abductors made away with their prime target,Wali.
Also, within the week,the Nigerian Armed ransacked Rundele community of Emohua local government area in search of two rifles and Army Uniforms stolen by illegal oil thieves. Throughout the period of the military operations properties were torched, while residents hurriedly fled their homes.
Above all was the open physical attack on Tonye Cole,the Governorship candidate for APC, his two SUV Cars vandalized in broad daylight by Political thugs who blocked him from entering the INEC office to meet scheduled appointment to collect Certified True Copies CTC of Electoral materials after sporadic shooting.
Preceding physical attack on Cole was the arrest and detention of three Lawyers hired by APC to file it’s petition at the Tribunal. It took the intervention and outcry of the national leadership of NBA before the Lawyers who arrested in their hotels to be set free.