The Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, has declined the request of the All Progressives Congress, APC and its candidate in the April 11 governorship election in the state, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, to transfer all the materials that were used for the conduct of the election to Abuja for inspection.
The tribunal, in a ruling on Wednesday, dismissed the application.
APC and Peterside had, as part of the petition filed against the election of Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, prayed the tribunal to direct INEC to relocate all the polling materials to Abuja for inspection by its legal team and forensic experts.
The materials included voters’ register, card readers, ballot papers and biometric data captured by the card readers, among others.
The Tribunal, in dismissing the application dated July 17, held that acceding to the request by the APC would amount to varying an earlier order it made on June 11, wherein it directed the electoral body to grant the petitioners access to the election materials, maintaining that the petitioners failed to convince it on why that previous ruling should be amended to reflect that the inspection of the materials should be conducted in Abuja.
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