SpicyTricks

It's been over two months since the conduct of the last general elections in Nigeria, with the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declaring the results and perceived winners taking Oath of Office while the presumed losers have either gone to the Election Petition Tribunal to seek justice or have chickened out.

Currently, the presidential election is not being challenged as President Buhari's closest rival, former President Goodluuck Jonathan has since moved on with his private life, refusing to be cowed into challenging the results of the election. While most of the losers in the governorship elections have accepted their defeat in good fate, one state which has established a landmark judgment from the Apex Court in 2007 and is set to repeat same, is the state of Rivers.

Though the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, won in a landslide, producing all members of the National Assembly and Thirty two but one on the State Assembly, as well as the Governor, in the person of Barrister Nyesom Wike, the All Progressive Congress, APC, led by its governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, have gone ahead to challenge the results allocated to the PDP. Dakuku Peterside is challenging INEC and the PDP at the tribunal currently sitting in Abuja.

Despite the war of words between the APC and INEC in Rivers State, over the alleged collusion between the latter and the PDP, the APC is undetered in its pursuit of justice. According to the party's governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, "there can be no peace without justice".

And in ensuring that there is peace in the crisis-ridden state, they are expecting an outright cancellation of the elections in the state. In furtherance of the pursuit for justice, the APC requested before the Justice Pindiga-led panel to inspect all the electoral materials used during the elections.

The APC approached the Court in an exparte motion filed by Barrister Olumide Ogunjimi requesting for the Order of the Court compelling INEC to throw its doors open for a proper inspection of the Card Readers, Ballot Papers, Result Sheets and every other material used at the polls. It was the only option left for the party since officials of the Commission in the state failed to comply with the relevant section of the Electoral Act 2010, Section 77(1) which states that, “

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, in a state where an election is conducted, shall within 7 days after an application is made to him by any of the parties to an election petition, cause such documents or the certified true copy thereof, to be issue to the said party".

According Barrister Achinike Wobodo of the APC, "after several letters written and acknowledged by the Commission under Gezila Khan, the REC, it has been series of disappointments and frustrations. INEC has practically refused to let us have access to the electoral materials used for the failed elections even when they know that we are time bound to submit these materials as evidence before the tribunals". Expectedly, the REC, Gezila Khan refuted Wobodo's claims. But the question remains, if INEC had done the needful, would the APC not be wasting its useful limited time to ask for an Order from the tribunals?

The panel of three Judges had on Thursday, June 11, 2015, ordered as follows in paragraph 2, "That the 1st Respondent (INEC) is hereby directed to allow the Petitioners/Applicants and or through their agents including their solicitors and forensic experts to inspect, copy, photocopy and obtain certified true copies of all Electoral materials related to or in connection with the conduct of the Rivers State Governorship election held on the 11th and 12th

days of April, 2015 including but not limited to used and unused ballot papers: the Voters' Register used in the conduct of the saod election: Forms EC8A, EC8B. EC8C, EC8D,and EC8E, EC17, EC17A, EC25A, EC25A(1), EC25B, etc, used in the said election; record of incident forms issued to all polling units designated for the elections, all incident forms filled by INEC officials in all the polling units in the said election, the list of permanent voters' cards collected and used in the said election; all the Card Readers used in the said election, data of accredited voters as captured by all smart card readers deployed during the 11th and 12th April, 2015 Governorship election conducted in all the polling units in Rivers State, sorted out into Local Governments, wards, polling units and voting points, record of ballot papers allocation to all the polling units in the said election".

Though counsels for Dakuku and the APC wrote the

Chairman of INEC in Abuja on June 16th, with the attention of Mr. Bawa, Director Legal department, and the letter was received and acknowledged same day, officials of the Commission both in Rivers State and at the headquarters have failed to comply with the said Order of the Court.

In the letter to the Chairman of INEC, it read, "Our clients have just informed us that armed with the order their solicitors and forensic experts approached your office in Port Harcourt yesterday,15th June, 2015, but your staff disallowed the inspection, on the excuse that they had not received any directive from your office in relation to the order and so would not allow our clients representatives to carry out the inspection.

 This letter is therefore to request your office as a matter of urgency, bearing in mind the time limitation for the trial of petitions to issue appropriate directives immediately to your office in Port Harcourt to obey the court order and permit our clients representatives to commence the inspection of the election materials without further day".

The APC had gone ahead to hire the services of a team of forensic experts led by Mr. Sanusi Turay of WRB System Limited. In spite of all the court order and the letters to the Commission, its been allegations and counter allegations. According to a source in INEC who pleaded anonymity, the legal department in Port Harcourt is not supposed to wait for an official directive from the headquarters since the Order covers INEC at all levels.

He attributed the flagrant disregard of the said order to their position as Defendants in every electoral matter like this. But further investigations by The Beam revealed that the problem of. APC with the officials of the Commission in Abuja may not be unconnected with the role of some of them during the infamous hijack of the PDP structure by Gov. Nyesom Wike from Chief G.U. Ake, the faction said to be loyal to former Gov. Rotimi Amaechi. Our source gathered that in order to legalise the action of replacing Ake with Felix Obuah as the State Chairman of the party, the legal department of INEC was highly compromised as huge sums of money were allegedly used to 'buy' the recognition of Obuah as the Chairman.

Incidentally, the immediate past Commissioner in charge of Legal, Mrs. Iremire and the current Director of Legal, Mr. Bawa were on seat during the controversial overtake of the structure. While Prince Uche Secondus was alleged to have provided the Certificate of Return from the PDP headquarters for Obuah who was not even a candidate at the primaries which brought Ake as the State Chairman, Bawa and co were to authenticate Wike's list of officers as the one recognized by the Commission.

While the Ake faction lost at the Federal High Court, Abuja on grounds of not producing his Certificate of Return which is an evidence of his election, Gov. Amaechi was said to have reported the matter to Prof. Attahiru Jega, the immediate past Chairman of INEC, who failed to wield the big stick against his officers rather he was said to have only scolded them and still allowed them on the same seat. Now that APC needs the services of the legal department to inspect the materials, they have mea brick wall as the same compromising officials are stopping at nothing to protect their 'pay master'. Meanwhile, inside sources say the legal officers are hopeful that the PDP will secure an order setting aside the order of the tribunal obtained by the APC for the inspection of electoral materials when the tribunal commences full sitting on July 6, 2015. With Prof. Jega out and a new acting Chairman, Mrs. Amina Zakari, will there be a new ray of hope for Dakuku and the APC? Events at the tribunal will tell!