Olusegun Olanrewaju
In a sweeping move, a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt yesterday nullified the primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.

The judgment affected the governorship candidate as well as national and state house of assembly candidates.

The court gave the decision in a suit brought before it by some aggrieved members of the party who had during the primaries of the party said they were excluded from participation.

The primaries had been rocked by protests at the state secretariat of the party in the state capital.

One George Orlu and four others who claimed to have purchased nomination forms had approached the court requesting that the primaries of APC in the state be nullified following their alleged non-inclusion in the process.

In its decision yesterday, the court ruled that the persons were indeed unlawfully excluded from the primaries.

Justice E.A. Obile held that the aggrieved persons were shut out of the primaries unlawfully, adding that the process amounted to nullity.

He, therefore, ruled that all those elected from the primary stand nullified and should not be recognised as candidates.

Kunle Afod, wife part ways

*Judgement travesty of justice- party spokesman

But in its reaction to the judgment yesterday, the APC described it as dead on arrival.

The state APC spokesperson, Darlington Nwauju, said the Supreme Court had in a plethora of cases declared political parties as their chief executive officers and could regulate their affairs.

He said the subject matter, which formed the fulcrum of the judgment, was an internal matter.

According to the spokesperson, the court’s decision amounted to a travesty of justice.

Nwauju said, “The persons who went to court against our party are now members of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and, therefore, they are meddlesome interlopers in our internal affairs.

“We do believe firmly that the appeal court shall treat the matter dispassionately and deliver justice in this matter because this is 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 is already dead on arrival. Nothing will stop the APC in Rivers from being on the ballot in 2023.”