The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday rejected a request by the African Action Congress and three of its members for an order of interim injunction stopping the Independent National Electoral Commission from going ahead with the collation and announcement of the results of the March 9, 2019 Governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections in Rivers State.
Instead of granting the ex parte application, Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered the plaintiffs to put the respondents on notice by serving the papers filed on them.
He then adjourned the case till March 25.
The judge also drew the attention of the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Mr Tawo Tawo (SAN), to a news item indicating that the court had on Tuesday granted the order stopping INEC from announcing the results of the River State elections.
Tawo denied knowledge of the publication and urged the court to ignore it, since no such thing happened.
He later moved the ex parte application which was rejected by the judge..
The plaintiffs who filed the suit marked FHC/ ABJ/CS/303/2019, are AAC, its governorship candidate in Rivers State, Biokpomabo Awara, and Ben-Gurion John Peter.
The respondents to the suit which was filed on March 18 are INEC and the Peoples Democratic Party.
In their main suit, the plaintiffs are challenging INEC’s decision to resume the announcement of the results of the election which it had earlier said was marred by violence and irregularities.
As part of the grounds for the application, the plaintiffs argued that INEC had earlier admitted that the election in Rivers State “was marred with substantial violence that compromised the credibility of the entire process, thereby suspending the election.”
PUNCH
