A Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, on Monday nullified the direct and indirect primary elections allegedly conducted by two factions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers.
The ruling of the court also nullifies the emergence of oil magnate, Tonye Cole, as APC governorship candidate in Rivers.
Delivering judgment, Justice Kolawole Omotosho, said both factions of the APC acted in disrespect of a pending suit before a Port Harcourt High Court.
It would be recalled that an APC governorship aspirant, Sen. Magnus Abe and other party members had approached the court presided over by Justice Chinwedu Worgu, challenging their alleged exclusion from the primaries.
Abe and his supporters had alleged high-handedness and irregularities in the planned conduct of the party primaries.
Justice Omotosho held that the APC in Rivers could not produce candidates for governorship, national and state assembly polls, while the matter was pending.
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According to him, it is illegal for candidates for the 2019 elections to emerge from the two primaries conducted by the two factions.
The two primaries as claimed by the factions were held during the pendency of the matter at the state high court.
“Both the direct and indirect primaries claimed to have been held by the APC are illegal and cannot stand in the face of the law,’’ he said.
