The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is considering legal action to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to produce Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents used in the last governorship election at the tribunal.

The party has disclosed that seven of its house of assembly candidates have successfully filed their petitions at the state election petition tribunal. The APC’s Publicity Secretary, Darlington Nwauju, revealed this in a recent telephone interview. Nwauju, however, could not confirm the specific constituencies of the assembly candidates.

It is noteworthy that the INEC had declared the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) winners of the 32 state assembly seats and three senatorial seats. The APC’s governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, had faced challenges in securing CTC documents from the INEC headquarters in Port Harcourt, and his attempts were met with opposition from alleged PDP supporters, resulting in protests by APC members and supporters.

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Nwauju stated that seven or eight assembly candidates have filed their petitions, but the APC’s governorship candidate has not filed yet and is considering other options.

One of the party’s lawyers, Dr Godswill Dike, who was allegedly kidnapped, revealed after his release that he had handed over the CTCs he collected from INEC to a party member. However, the APC’s 2023 governorship Campaign Council spokesman, Sogbeye Eli, claimed that the CTCs were hijacked from Dike by suspected PDP members.

Nwauju explained that the party could use the CTCs to file in court, and if faced with difficulties, they could move a motion to compel INEC to produce the documents. Dr Dike also confirmed that the documents are available online and the party could explore the option of obtaining online soft copies of the documents.

He further stated that the party could file without the documents and later subpoena INEC to come to court and tender the documents as evidence.