A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has nullified all the primaries conducted by the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state over illegal exclusion of some members of the party as delegates.
Some members of the party in the state, led by George Orlu, had approached the court asking it to nullify the party primaries over their exclusion.
The Judge, E.A. Obile, on Monday ruled that the aggrieved persons were shut out of the primaries illegally, and thereby rendering the outcome a nullity, according to a report by the Punch newspaper.
Justice Obile ordered that those that emerged from the primaries of the party should not be recognised as candidates for next year’s general elections.
The APC in Rivers have been fractionalised between loyalists of the former minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and a former governorship aspirant of the party, Magnus Abe.
Mr Abe defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) where he picked the governorship ticket for next year’s election, after he was outmaneuvered by Mr Ameachi faction at the APC primaries.
The plaintiffs in the case were mainly loyalists of Mr Abe.
Reacting to the court judgment, APC spokesperson in the state, Darlington Nwauju described it as a “travesty of justice”.
Mr Nwauju, who stated this in a statement on Tuesday, said an attempt to repeat the 2019 event on the party in 2023, where the APC in Rivers State were barred from fielding candidates for elections, would fail.
He said the claimants in the case are now members of the SDP and assured party supporters in the state that the appellate court would overturn the ruling.
“Our immediate response is that the Supreme Court has decided on a plethora of cases suggesting that political parties are their own chief executive officers and can regulate their own internal affairs.
“The subject matter for which Justice Obile granted the relief of plaintiffs to nullify the congresses of our party is entirely an internal party affair, therefore it’s a travesty of justice as far as we are concerned.
“We assure Rivers people that the attempt to rehash the 2019 episode in Rivers State is already dead on arrival.
“Nothing will stop the APC in Rivers State from being on the ballot in 2023.”
