The Court of Appeal in Port-Harcourt has confirmed that the Rivers state chapter of the APC won’t field candidates for the 2019 general elections in the state.

In addition to dismissing the appeal filed by Tonye Cole, Justice Abubakar Yahaya also confirmed a previous ruling that Rivers state has no ward executives, local government executives and state executives.

The Rivers state APC senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly primaries had also previously been nullified, in addition to the nomination of Cole as the APC’s governorship candidate.

The Port-Harcourt division of the court made the confirmation when it dismissed the appeal filed by the factional Rivers state APC governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, Vanguard reports.

The court, led by Justice Abubakar Yahaya, further dismissed the appeal filed by the sacked Rivers state APC chairman, Ojukaye Flag Amachree, as it also confirmed the judgment of Justice Chinwendu Nwogu that Rivers state has no ward executives, local government executives and state executives. According to the court, both appeals lacked merit.

A third appeal was also dismissed because it was filed out of time and therefore statute barred. It focused on the judgment by Justice Chinwendu Nwogu. Justice Yahaya, delivering judgment, said the appeal against the Justice Chinwendu Nwogu High Court judgment on the party congress crisis lacks merit. He added that the application for joinder failed to observe the 14 days rule of appeals.

According to Yahya, the Ojukaye faction failed to seek leave of court before appealing against the Justice Nwogu judgment. He said the Ojukaye faction should have done the needful, legally, before approaching the court.

It will be recalled that the nomination of Tonye Cole as the APC’s governorship candidate in Rivers had been nullified by a Port Harcourt high court on October 10, 2018. The court ruled that Tonye’s nomination was a function of illegality and unconstitutional acts.
The Rivers state APC senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly primaries were also nullified.

The High Court further nullified all the elections of Rivers APC ward executives, local government executives and the State Executive Committee that arose; as it ruled that they arose from illegal ward congresses which were not conducted in line with the guidelines and constitution of the APC.

k

�

.