Kingsley Chinda faces fresh threats at home as court-backed faction calls for cancellation of Rivers APC primaries, LGA officials

Okey Kingsley Chinda, the embattled candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, who has faced turmoil in the Federal House of Representatives over evidence that he defected properly, has faced another threat to his candidature back home.

Following three favourable court judgments in Port Harcourt, the Emeka Beke-led faction of the APC has called on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC to make haste and cancel the primaries that threw up Chinda and all other APC candidates.

The primaries are already facing crisis following disqualification of many notable members of the APC and some others who just joined, including Ipalibo Harry Briggs, the immediate past deputy governor who is a sitting senator.

At a press briefing in Port Harcourt Monday, June 1, 2026, Darlington Nwauju, spokesman of the court-backed executive committee, recounted the three previous court rulings against the Tony Okocha-led group, and demanded that with the confirmation of the nullification of the Okocha-led executive committee by a Port Harcourt Appeal Court, it is time for the NWC to cancel all exercises carried out by the nullified faction including the primaries that brought Chinda in.

Chinda is the Minority Leader of the House of Reps under the PDP and there are moves demanding evidence that he formally defected to the APC and properly resigned his position before buying form in APC in Rivers State.

Addressing the press, Nwauju demanded for seven actions saying; “That all nominations, representations, communications, documentations including decisions reached on behalf of the Rivers State APC between December 20, 2024 to Friday 29th May 2026, with the seal or imprimatur of members of the illegal executives, their agents, assigns or privies, is to the extent of the subsistence of the orders of court, illegal, null, void, and of no effect.”

Read also: Fresh legal tangles upset Wike’s web in Rivers

He went on: “That as at today, there is no other legally constituted executives of the APC in Rivers State existing outside that led by Chief Emeka Beke until and that the nomination of candidates made to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for the August 2025 Local Government Elections on behalf of Rivers APC were made by persons unknown to law and to that extent illegal and all declarations and Certificates of Return (CoR) issued in favour of the All Progressives Congress must be retrieved and deservedly go to the duly nominated chairmen and vice chairmen communicated to RSIEC on August 14, 2025 by the Chief Emeka Beke-led executives.”

He said every lawful step shall now be taken to demand for the declaration, recognition, and swearing-in of all Local Government Chairmen and Vice Chairmen duly and validly nominated by the Beke led-Exco which were ignobly rejected by the RSIEC management; and that all primaries conducted for selection of candidates/flagbearers in the name of the APC in Rivers State be immediately reviewed by the National Working Committee to avert a repeat of the Zamfara State APC experience.”

He demanded that all records of activities including primaries/conventions wherein the illegal executives/impersonators participated directly or indirectly in and/or contributed to declarations/returns on behalf of the All Progressives Congress, are to the extent of the illegality of their activities, null and void and must therefore be immediately expunged from the records of the All Progressives Congress in Nigeria.

The group quoted Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, on September 30 2024 to have said thus: “Disobedience to court orders or non-compliance with judicial directives is a direct affront to democracy and an invitation to anarchy. As such, it is critical that we respect and observe all the features of an enduring democracy, for in doing so, we maintain the delicate balance that sustains our society”.

He blamed the Umar Ganduje-led NWC for the mess the APC in Rivers State was sliding into, for allegedly ignoring many court rulings to install a caretaker committee and ignored court orders to organize congresses, primaries, LGA elections, etc.

Should the primaries that produced Chinda and other be cancelled, and with uproar at the National Assembly over his emergence in APC while allegedly still a member of the PDP and an office holder of a PDP slot in the Federal House, his place in the upcoming elections and post-election seem to be under heavy threat.