Thunder may have returned to strike in same place after four years. This is as a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt has again knocked off all candidates of the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from contesting in any position in 2023.
A faction of the APC (which has now moved into the Social Democratic Party, SDP) led by one time senator, Magnus Abe, has consistently dragged their party to court. Many APC lords the person behind all the court cases is the state government.
Thus, some aggrieved APC members loyal Abe, now the governorship candidate of the SDP had approached the court challenging the conduct of the delegates Congress with claims of exclusion from the delegates list.
The judge agreed with them Tuesday, October 25, 2022, afternoon in a verdict that took most news harks unaware.
Reacting, the APC described the judgment as a travesty of justice. A statement by the state’s publicity secretary, Darlington Nwauju, after consulting with their legal team, said the subject matter for which the justice E.A. Obile granted the relief of plaintiffs to nullify the congresses of their party is entirely an internal party affair. “Therefore, it’s a travesty of justice as far as we are concerned.
“Secondly, the persons who went to court against the party are now members of the SDP and therefore meddlesome interlopers in our internal affairs.
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“We do believe firmly that the appellate courts shall treat the matter dispassionately and deliver justice in this matter because this not an action against the primaries of our party but an attempt at challenging the composition of our delegates 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.”
The judgment may put fears in the hearts of voters now that many candidates are wooing voters and sections of the state. The fear is that by the time the APC rescues the nuts in the fire at the Supreme Court, most voters may have pitched camps elsewhere.
There are many other court cases against other parties in various courts in the state in a strategy believed to be to knock out all parties and all contestants at the judiciary and there would be only ‘one man standing’.
