Justice E.A. Obile held that the aggrieved persons were shut out of the APC primaries unlawfully, describing the process as a nullity.
By Emma Ogbuehi
In a replay of what happened in 2019, a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, on Tuesday, nullified all the primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.
The court gave the verdict while delivering judgement in a suit filed by some aggrieved members of the party who claimed they were excluded from the delegate elections that preceded the APC primaries.
One George Orlu and four others, who claimed to have purchased nomination forms, approached the court requesting that the primaries of APC should be nullified following their exclusion.
The court ruled that the persons were unlawfully excluded from the APC primaries.
Justice E.A. Obile held that the aggrieved persons were shut out of the primaries unlawfully, describing the process as a nullity.
He ruled that all those elected from the APC primaries stood nullified and should not be recognised as candidates.
Meanwhile, the APC which confirmed the judgement on Tuesday, described it as dead on arrival.
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Rivers APC spokesperson, Darlington Nwauju, said the Supreme Court had in plethora of cases declared political parties as their own Chief Executive Officers and could regulate their own affairs.
He said the subject matter, which formed the fulcrum of the judgement was an internal matter describing the court’s decision as a travesty of justice.
He said: “The persons who went to court against our party are now members of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and therefore they are meddlesome interlopers in our internal affairs.
“We do believe firmly that the appeal court shall treat the matter dispassionately and deliver justice in this matter because this is not an action against the primaries of our party but an attempt at challenging the composition of our delegate list.
“We assure Rivers people that the attempt to rehash the 2019 episode in Rivers is already dead on arrival. Nothing will stop the APC in Rivers from being on the ballot in 2023”.
