The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Wednesday, compounded the woes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State as it dismissed three appeals by a faction of the party against the October 10 judgment of the State High Court, which declared the congresses of the party void.
But the faction, led by Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has headed to the Supreme Court to challenge the judgments, which has put the likelihood of APC fielding any candidate in the state in the 2019 elections on the balance.
The Supreme Court has, however, fixed March 8, 2019 for its judgment on the appeal.
The Ojukaye Flag-Amachree’s faction loyal to Amaechi had gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment of the state High Court, which in the matter brought before it by Ibrahim Umar and 22 other aggrieved members of APC loyal to Senator Magnus Abe, had declared the party congresses as null and void.
President of the Court of Appeal had set up a special three-man panel, led by Justice Abubakar Yahaya, to hear the appeal registered as Number CA/PH/198. The appeal court also struck out two joinder applications filed by Flag-Amachree, the governorship candidate of APC in Rivers, Mr. Tonye Cole, and other elected candidates of same faction.
Delivering his judgment yesterday after few hours break, Justice Yahaya said the appeal against the Justice Chinwendu Nwogu High Court judgment lacks merit, adding that the application for joinder failed to observe the 14 days rules of appeal.
While delivering judgment on the substantive appeal that bordered on Justice Nwogu’s judgment, the panel ruled that the Flag-Amachree’s faction failed to seek leave of court before appealing against the judgment.
The appeal court also ruled that the judgment delivered at the lower court was a consent judgment, adding that Flag-Amachree’s faction should have done the needful legally before approaching the court. (Thisday)