The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is to fault for moving the State Election Petitions Tribunal to Abuja, according to Hon. Innocent Ajaelu, a leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State.
He said that this was caused by the PDP’s and its members’ conduct, particularly the siege that lasted for approximately a week at INEC’s state office.
Ajaelu, who is also running for the SDP House of Assembly in the Oyigbo Constituency, spoke yesterday in the state capital of Port Harcourt during a conversation with leadership.
He said, “As a person, I didn’t support the idea of moving the tribunal to Abuja but based on prevailing circumstances and character and attitude of PDP in Rivers State; they have shown that if the tribunal is going to sit here in Port Harcourt, it is going to be another way of unleashing their planned evil on Rivers people.
“Based on what they did at INEC for a whole one week where they laid siege at INEC. It is the first in the history of Nigeria. Since I was born and as a politician, I have never seen where people come to do protest in INEC and they brought in native doctors, they brought in hoodlums and they brought in all kinds of people.
“They did all kinds of things in Rivers State in the very eyes of all the security agencies. It became a funfair for a whole one week. That alone will tell you that there will be more if the tribunal is allowed to sit in Rivers State.
“Prior to the elections, Executive Order 21 and Executive Order 22 were all planned to frustrate other political parties from going to sell their ideas to Rivers’ people.
“During the elections, you all know what happened during the elections. That is a story for another day,” he said.