AAC asks court to suspend announcement of Rivers election result (corrected)

The African Action Congress (AAC) has asked a federal high court in Abuja to halt the collation and announcement of the results of the March 9 governorship election in Rivers state.

The commission had suspended all electoral processes in the state following widespread violence.

Last week, it announced that results of the elections in 17 local government areas of the state were intact and that it would make public its decision on the election by Wednesday.

However, the AAC asked the court to order the commission to halt its scheduled resumption of the announcement of the results.

The applicant prayed the court for an order of interim injunction restraining INEC from resuming, collating or announcing the results of the suspended elections in Rivers.

But the court refused to grant the application. Inyang Ekwo, a member of the panel which presided over the matter, asked AAC to put INEC on notice.

On Tuesday, a federal high court in Abuja ordered the commission to suspend collation of results of the Bauchi governorship election.

The order was based on a suit filed by Abubakar Mohammed, governor of the state and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.

INEC had complied with the directive but vowed to challenge it in court.

As of the time this report was filed, the commission had not made public its decision on Rivers.

Editor’s note: The story has been corrected over an error of fact. We apologise to our readers.