The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has said the plan to prevent the party from challenging the result of the state governorship election will fail.
Speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Cole said the violence unleashed on Rivers APC members is a ploy to waste the party’s time regarding the election petition.
The APC candidate said his party has not received the expected cooperation from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as regards the election materials.
Cole stated he was slapped and injured in the fracas that broke out at the INEC office in Port Harcourt, Rivers state capital during an attempt to get the Certified True Copies of the election result.
He said: “It seems as if there is a calculated plot to prevent us from presenting a reasonable petition.
“It is either we are being prevented from gaining access to CTC documents that we need to build our case or we are being prevented directly so that we can run out of time.
“Both of them are tied together. First, our lawyers were arrested. All the evidence we are building was taken. We spent Saturday and Sunday trying to retrieve all of these.
“We retrieved them on Sunday. On Monday morning, we spent time trying to get documents. We have not gotten the documents, instead, we were shot at, harassed, stoned, and wounded.
“Another day (Monday) has gone. At what point are we going to have time to prepare for the petition that we must submit?
“We haven’t received the cooperation that we expected from INEC at all. I have no idea why INEC has been silenced. Why did the REC refuse to take my call?”
