A chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State, Hon Innocent Ajaelu, has blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the relocation of the State Election Petitions Tribunal to Abuja.
He said the actions of the PDP and its members, including the siege at the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for about one week accounted for this.
Ajaelu, who is also the SDP House of Assembly candidate for Oyigbo Constituency, spoke yesterday during a chat with LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
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.
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