SUPREME COURT: NO APC RIVERS CANDIDATE FOR ELECTIONS INTO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY AND GOVERNORSHIP

No candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Rivers State Chapter, will be on the ballot for the National Assembly election on February 16 (for elections into the Senate and House of Representatives) as well as the governorship and state House of Assembly elections on March 2.

This is the consequence of the Supreme Court ruling nullifying the decision of the Court of Appeal which seemed to have paved the way for the All Progressives Congress, Rivers State chapter, to field candidates in the general elections against the original ruling of a High Court.

In overturning the decision of the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court said the lower appellate court failed to invoke relevant sections of the law in voiding the decision of the Federal High Court barring the party from participating in elections in the state.

The ruling put to rest the contention of two rival factions of the party which had conducted parallel primaries to elect two different set of candidates to vie under the banner of the APC in the federal and state level elections. One faction led by the incumbent Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi had produced Tonye Cole as its Gubernatorial candidate while the other led by Magnus Abe produced him as the Gubernatorial candidate. Both congresses were however said to have been legally tainted as they were alleged to have been conducted despite valid court orders restraining their conduct and were therefore invalid.