As a law abiding political party, we wish to draw public attention to the unethical connivance with the PDP and unbriddled partisanship of Mr Mike Odeh, who is the INEC Head of Operations in Rivers State.
May we put on record that the APC in Rivers State had applied for the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C and other documents incidental to the recently conducted National Assembly elections in the state in which results were mutilated and or forged in favour of the PDP in areas where our party clearly won and our candidates should have been declared winners if INEC had kept it’s promise of uploading results from the pollings units to the iREV portal.
Instructively, the said Head of Operations, Mr Odeh, against both the civil service rules, INEC guidelines and the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) has consciously and viciously erected a wall to ensure he frustrates the moves of the APC in Rivers State to retrieve the stolen mandates of our National Assembly candidates by refusing to release the relevant documents earlier listed, which are at the heart of prosecuting our petitions at the Elections Petitions Tribunal knowing too well that election petitions are sui generis or time bound. Meaning that the Head of Operations is in cahoots with the PDP in Rivers State to frustrate all election petitions and allow the PDP walk away with stolen mandates. This brazen show of hate for our party is even in the face of the endorsement/approvals already granted our party to access these documents by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and the Administrative Secretary of INEC in Rivers State.
The APC in Rivers State has lost confidence in the Head of Operations, Mr Mike Odeh and demands his immediate investigation and prosecution for single-handedly uprooting the independence status of the INEC after obviously corruptly enriching himself and putting his selfish interest against the public good.
We hereby issue a 72hrs notice to the INEC headquarters to direct that these documents be released to the APC State chapter failing which we shall have no other option than to mount a blockade on the State office of the INEC in Port Harcourt until our rights are granted as a political party.
Signed:
Darlington Nwauju
Rivers State APC Spokesman
10th March 2023
