As the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt affirms the lower court judgement sacking the Tony Okocha – led Executive of the Rivers State All Progressives Congress,the Emeka Beke-led faction of the party has called on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC to cancel the primaries that brought in iChinda and all other APC candidates without delay.
Spokesman of the state chapter of the now authentic faction of the party, Darlington Nwauju made the call at a press briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday,
Nwauju 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 the Appeal Court, the time has come for the NWC to cancel all exercises carried out by the nullified faction including the all the recently conducted primaries including that for the office of governor
Demanding for seven actions Nwauju declared “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.”
Speaking further he said: “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.”
According to him,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.”
The court – backed executive also 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.
It quoted Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, on September 30 2024 as once said that “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”.
It blamed the Umar Ganduje-led NWC for the crisis in the APC in Rivers State alleging that the NWC shunned many court rulings to install a caretaker committee and ignored court orders to organize congresses, primaries, LGA elections .
