APC closes case at Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal

<p>The All Progressives Congress has closed its case at the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja.</p>, <p>The matter has been slated for adoption of final written address, in a date that will be communicated to the parties.</p>, <p>The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Patrick Tonye-Cole, is challenging the victory of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.</p>, <p>The PDP had protested and blocked all sections of the Port Harcourt-Aba express road leading to the INEC office in April.</p>, <p>They barricaded the entrance to the Rivers State head office of INEC, for almost two weeks, to prevent the APC governorship candidate from accessing the INEC office.</p>, <p>Tonye-Cole was to collect the Certified True Copy of the results that declared Governor Fubara the winner of the election on March 18, 2023.</p>, <p>The PDP had claimed that the reason for their protest, was to stop the APC from an alleged plot to replace the CTC of the election result with a fake copy.</p>, <p>They also demanded that INEC does not allow just one political party to inspect electoral materials, but that inspection should be done jointly by all parties.</p>, <p>The protest took place days after operatives of the Rivers State Police Command arrested some lawyers handling the election case for Tonye-Cole of the APC, alongside their materials, but were later released.</p>, <p>The APC, however, got hold of the documents they needed to file their case, miraculously beating the deadline for case filing of election matters.</p>