There is uneasy calm in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State after the Appeal Court verdict which struck out the application seeking to validate the executives of the party at the various levels in the state through the quashing of the judgment of Justice Chiwendu Nworgu of the state High Court.
Nworgu had, in a judgment on October 10, annulled the ward, local government and state congresses of the APC in the state, bringing to question the legality of the primaries of the party which produced its candidates for the 2019 polls in the state.
23 aggrieved members of the APC loyal to Sen. Magnus Abe, a contender for the governorship ticket of the party, had approached the High Court for redress and the court cancelled the congresses.
The faction of the party loyal to the Transportation Minister, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, challenged the High Court ruling at the appeal.
The three-man panel, led by Justice Abubakar Yahaya, also struck out two joinder motions filed by the factional Chairman of the APC in the state, Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, the governorship candidate of the party, Tonye Cole, and other candidates who emerged from the primaries of the party ahead of the 2019 polls.
Justice Yahaya, who read the ruling, said the appeal against the High Court judgement lacked merit, adding that the application for joinder failed to observe the 14 days’ rule on the appeal.
On the substantive appeal, the panel ruled that the Amaechi faction of APC in the state failed to seek leave of court before appealing the judgment.
Yahaya explained that the judgment of the lower court was a consent judgment, explaining that the Ojukaye faction should have done the needful legally before approaching the appeal.
While saying the APC could reapply for the appeal if they wished, he lauded the counsel for the parties over the manner they conducted themselves, regretting that the matter bordered on internal party crisis.
The judge stated: “This matter is within one party. What is going to happen when it is between different parties?
“It is politics, we are brothers, same house and we are throwing stones at each other. Please let’s reconcile and settle this.”
THEY FILED OUT OF TIME – DEFENCE COUNSEL
Counsel for the 23 aggrieved respondents, Patrick Luke, narrated outside the court room that the appeal was statute barred as it was filed out of time.
“The first case was an appeal against the judgment of October 10, 2018 delivered by the High Court of Rivers State”, Luke stated.
“After listening to our arguments, the court dismissed the appeal because they filed the case outside the terms provided by the Constitution; they ought to have filed that appeal within 14 days of the delivery of the judgment of the lower court.
“But they filed the appeal 25 days later and it was accordingly struck out by the Court of Appeal.
“The other two matters were based on applications for joinder. Also the two applications were also dismissed for lack of merit.
“The implication is that the judgment delivered by the High Court of Rivers State on October 10, 2018 is valid, subsisting, sacred and inviolable.”
For his part, Emenike Ebete, the applicant’s counsel, said, “The Court of Appeal Special Panel held three appeals against the High Court of Rivers State arising from applications by some candidates against the lower court judgement of October 10, 2018.
“Arguments were taken but the court, in its infinite wisdom, held that in Appeal 461, that is, the substantive appeal, the consent judgment of the High Court of Rivers State and, by the provision of the Constitution, we ought to have sought leave of the Court to Appeal against that consent judgment.
“That is their own decision and they struck it out and they said we should come back and do the proper thing by seeking leave of the court.
“The joinder for the candidates and the party state exco was dismissed on the grounds that it was a pre-election matter, that we did not bring the applications within 14 days after the verdict was delivered on October 10. What that means is that we will approach the Supreme Court to contest that.”
COLE REMAINS ADAMANT
Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of the APC in the state, Tonye Cole, says what the Appeal Court did by not accepting his application for joinder had only saved him the cost of going to court.
Cole, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, noted that the decision of the court did not affect his candidature in the 2019 elections.
He disclosed that he was going on with his campaigns ahead of the elections, stating that he was happy that the money he would have used to pursue the case in court had been saved by the judgment.
He said: “What the court did is just that they saved me the cost of hiring a lawyer and going to court. I am not bothered about that.
“I am on with my campaign because I am still the candidate of the party. I am not worried over the litigation because it is not really helping the party”.
