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By Godwin Chukwumaechi, Port Harcourt
The Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, and presided over by Justice E.A. Obile, Tuesday nullified all the primary elections conducted by the All Progressives Congress in the state over unlawful exclusion of some members of the party as delegates to the primaries.
The primaries include that of the gubernatorial candidate, Tonye Cole, and candidates for the state and national Assemblies.
Justice Obile’s ruling is on a case filed against the APC by one George Orlu and four others who claimed to have purchased nomination forms and were excluded from the process.
They had approached the court requesting that the primaries of the party in the state be nullified.
The presiding judge in his ruling agreed with the plaintiffs that they were wrongly excluded from participating in the party primaries and therefore nullified all primaries conducted by the APC towards the 2023 general elections.
He ruled that all those elected from the primary are nullified and should not be recognized as candidates.
However, the APC has reacted to the judgment describing it as travesty of justice as far as the party was concerned.
It said that following a Supreme Court judgment on many similar cases which suggest that political parties are their own chief executive officers (CEOs) and can regulate on their own affairs, the party would challenge the judgment at the Appeal Court.
The party, through its publicity secretary, Darlington Nwauju said; “The subject matter for which Justice E.A. Obile granted the relief of the 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”.
The APC added that the “persons who went to court against our party are now members of the Social Democratic Party, SDP and therefore meddlesome interlopers in our internal affairs”.
“We do believe firmly that the appellate court shall treat the matter dispassionately and deliver justice in this matter because this is not an action against 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 State is already dead on arrival. Nothing will stop the APC in Rivers State from being on the ballot in 2023”.
