The rumored relocation of the Rivers State Elections Petitions Tribunal to Abuja has several political groups in Rivers State at odds with one another.
The relocation of the tribunal to Abuja was verified to our correspondent on Friday afternoon by a source in the tribunal who asked to remain anonymous because he lacked the authority to talk.
The source stated, “Yes, that is true; we will be relocating to Abuja, hopefully by the end of the week. In particular, the recent kidnapping of Senior Advocate of Nigeria Okey Wali is the main cause of the instability.
“The incident that took place at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Port Harcourt and some political parties also came up. So the office (tribunal) feels that we don’t need to take any chances because life is very precious.”
This occurred two weeks after the tribunal began hearing petitions, with 76 petitions already submitted, contesting the elections won by the Peoples’ Democratic Party from various political parties and candidates in the state.