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The Rivers state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the state office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of deliberately frustrating its efforts to file petitions against the outcome of the National Assembly elections of February 25, 2023, in the state.

The party alleged that it had applied for the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C and other documents incidental to the recently conducted National Assembly elections in the state in which, according to the APC, results were mutilated and or forged in favour of the PDP in areas where the APC clearly won and its candidates should have been declared winners if INEC had kept its promise of uploading results from the polling units to the iReV portal.

It further claimed that the Head of Operations, Mr Odeh, against the civil service rules, INEC guidelines and the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) consciously and viciously refused to release the relevant documents.

APC in a press release in Port Harcourt Friday night accused INEC of unethical connivance with the PDP and unbriddled partisanship through the lack of cooperation of Mr Odeh, a move which, according to the party is at the heart of prosecuting the party’s petitions at the Elections Petitions Tribunal “knowing too well that election petitions are sure generis or time-bound.”

It described Mr Odeh’s attitude as meaning that the Head of Operations is in cahoots with the PDP in Rivers State to frustrate all election petitions and allow the PDP walk away with allegedly stolen mandates.