Tonye Cole, the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, has spoken out against the arrest of three lawyers and five support staff working for the APC filling election petition materials at election tribunal in Port Harcourt.
The lawyers are from the chambers of Tuduru Ede (SAN) and were arrested on Friday night at the hotel they were lodged in Port Harcourt.
This arrest and seizure of electoral evidence is surprising since the election petition fillings are time bound.
Tonye Cole confirmed the arrest to newsmen on Saturday, and described it as a rude awakening especially with the confiscation of the electoral materials by the Police.
Cole further sought the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari in the matter.
Note that the ruling party at the national level is the APC led by Muhammadu Buhari.
Recall that Tonye Cole and the state APC party executives, had earlier led a protest to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Port Harcourt. The protest was about the refusal of INEC to release certified true copies of documents used in the election which is needed to file petitions at the tribunal.
