Court reinstates all APC candidates in Rivers

The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt has set aside a Federal High Court judgement that nullified the primaries that produced all candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Rivers State in next year’s general elections.

Aggrieved members of the APC loyal to a former governorship aspirant in the party, Magnus Abe, had challenged their exclusion from the congresses of the party.

The plaintiffs, George Orlu, Henry Wali & three others, had approached the court demanding the delegate congresses be nullified viz-a-viz all the primaries of the APC therein with regard to the state Houses of Assembly elections, House of Representatives, Senate and governorship election for the 2023 general elections slated for the 25th of February and the 11th day of March, 2023.

On October 25, Justice Emmanuel Adema Obile of the FHC in Port Harcourt nullified all primary elections conducted by the Party in Rivers State over the unlawful exclusion of some party members as delegates to the primaries.

Dissatisfied with the ruling of the trial court, the aggrieved parties in suit Nos: CA/PH/505/2022 (Nwankwo Ndubuisi Ozojie & 47 Ors v. George Orlu & 7 Ors) and CA/PH/521/2022 (INEC v. George Orlu & 6 Ors) approached the penultimate court.

In a unanimous decision, the three-man panel of the Appeal Court led by Justice Muhammed Lawal Shuaibu JCA, upheld the submissions of the appellants and restored all APC candidates on the ballot.