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By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that Friday’s ruling by the State High Court, nullifying the ward, local and state congresses and thereby sacking the incumbent leadership of the party in the state, does not by anyway affect the party’s candidates for the general election nor nullify the primaries from which the candidates emerged.
The party said the judgement “has nothing to do with the candidates of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State as all our candidates for House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate are legible and qualified to contest and win the forthcoming general elections, having emerged from the direct primaries.”
APC’s director of Administration in Bayelsa State, Mr Emmanuel Ojise Ayakpo, said in a statement on Saturday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital that the party is “rather focused on reclaiming its mandate which the people of the state freely gave to the party in 2019 in order to deliver the right dividend of democracy to the people of Bayelsa State instead of the judgement.”
The State High Court in Yenagoa had on Friday in a ruling on Suit No YHC/16/2022, between Mr Alex Izibenikibo Blackson and the All Progressives Congress and others, which challenged the congresses of the party in the state, nullified the ward, local government and state congresses of the party that produced the incumbent leadership of the party in the state.
Ayakpo said: “The attention of the Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has been drawn to deliberate falsehood circulated by agents of gittering opposition political element to the effect that the judgement delivered by Hon Justice I.T Cocodia in Suit NO YHC/16/2022 between Mr Alex Izibenikibo Blackson vs All Progressives Congress and others on the 20th of January, 2023, has nullified the party primaries of the APC in Bayelsa State, thereby sacking all its candidates for the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate from contesting the forthcoming general elections.
“Ordinarily as a party focused on reclaiming our mandate to deliver the right dividend of democracy to the impoverished people of Bayelsa State, we were not minded to react to this patently false and malicious publication.
“However the intention of this falsehood circulated by enemies of the truth is misleading, unassuming and deceptive. We are therefore compelled as a responsible political party with the obligation of always feeding the public with the truth to put the record straight.
“Let it be established straight away that the judgement delivered by Hon Justice I.T Cocodia of the High Court of Bayelsa State, has nothing to do with the candidates of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State as all our candidates for House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate are legible and qualified to contest and win the forthcoming general elections.
“As you are aware, the Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress raised alarm on the 5th January, 2023 over the brazen and unsuppressed display of bias/lack of impartiality and judicial excesses as set out above the instant suit is that of the skin of Esau and the voice of Jacob as members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party that have labored under the illusion that getting an architect job done in this will disqualify the candidates of the All Progressives Congress from contesting the forthcoming general elections.
“They have boasted and made it clear to the APC family that they will ditch out the Zamfara and Rivers states experience to members of the APC in Bayelsa State.
“Curiously Hon. Justice I.T Cocodia has filial ties with the state adviser to the governor of Bayelsa State, High Chief Collins Cocodia thereby breeding a fertile for the judgement to be settled as a family business.
“In the course of the proceedings Hon. I.T. Cocodia practically descended to the arena of the conflict
