The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt yesterday upturned two judgements of the Federal High Court disqualifying the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State from participating in the 2023 general election.
The Federal High Court headed by Justice Emmanuel Obile had in two separate judgements disqualified all the APC candidates from being in the 2023 ballot.
The first suit, which was brought by one George Orlu and four others argued that some qualified delegates were disenfranchises during the party’s primary elections.
The second suit was brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the ground that the APC did not follow due processes in the election of its National Assembly candidates.
Delivering judgement on the appeal against the judgement in favour of Orlu and four others, the three-man panel held that the Orlu and others did not exhaust internal party mechanism before instituting the suit.
The panel led by Hon. Justice Muhammed Lawal-Shuaibu, also held that the respondents did not participate in the congress of the APC and did not have any cause for the action.
Delivering judgement on the appeal against the PDP suit, the panel said the nomination of delegates by political parties is an internal party affair and that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit in the first place.
The Court of Appeal awarded the sum of N500,000 and N1 million as cost against Orlu and the PDP in favour of the APC and its candidates.
Reacting to the development, the APC in Rivers State, said with the judgements of the Court of Appeal, it has become clear that no political party has the right to meddle into the internal affairs of another political party.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt, spokesman of the APC Campaign Council, Sogbeye Eli, “We are glad that this issue has been settled today in law; that Party A cannot forage into the territory of Party B to question in what way or manner our candidates emerged.
“That point was as clear as day light. The Appeal Court justices in their unanimous decisions relied heavily on established authority of the Supreme Court to emphasize their legal standing on today’s decisions.”
