The governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC for the 2019 elections in Rivers, Tonye Cole, has said his party has enough grounds to reverse the latest court judgement which disqualified him and other candidates for the 2019 elections.
Tonye Cole in a statement by the spokesman of his campaign organization, Ogbonna Nwuke, said: “Although we were not favoured by the decision, our faith in the country’s judicial system remains unshaken.
Recall that a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Monday declared that the Direct and indirect primaries of the Rivers State APC are illegal, null and void.
The court further nullified all nominations of the APC in Rivers State for the forthcoming elections in 2019.
The court declared that both the Direct and indirect primaries were held during the pendency of the suit at the Rivers State High Court.
Justice Kolawole Omotosho in his judgment in the suit filed by Senator Magnus Abe and others versus Rivers APC and others declared that the APC for failing to respect the law must bear the consequences of her disobedience of the law, thereby nullifying the primary elections.
According to Justice Omotosho, the APC conducted the indirect primaries in gross disrespect of the pending suit before Justice Chinwendu Nwogu of the Rivers State High Court.
Justice Omotosho noted that the judgment of Justice Chinwendu Nwogu nullifying the primaries of the APC in Rivers State is yet to be set aside by an appellate court, hence it remains valid.
However, in a swift reaction, Cole said: “We believe that we have sufficient grounds on which to appeal the decisions of the Federal High Court as well as the ruling of the Rivers State High Court.”
On the matter brought before the Court by Abe and 43 others, he said: “It is clear from the ruling that Abe and his supporters have no locus.”
Meanwhile, Spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Darlington Orji, in the party’s reaction, described the judgment as a victory for democracy, adding that the consequence on Rivers APC was self-inflicted.
According to him “It is a victory for democracy. The judgment has proven that the judiciary is still the hope of the common man, a proof that dictatorship has ended in Rivers politics, a situation where one man sits in his room to decide what happens in the state.
“The judgment has solved the problem of Rivers even before the election. The spirit of God has taken control. Governance is a social contract and we have our scorecard to show. Governor Nyesom Wike has shown capacity.
“My advice to APC is that nobody can benefit from his stupidity. They shot themselves in the foot and they cannot get out of it. The 2019 election is between poverty and making Nigeria work again.”
Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, also said it was “studying the court judgment with a view to acting accordingly.” INEC’s Director in charge of Voter Education, Publicity, Civil Society and Gender Liaison, Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzi said, “We will study the judgment and act accordingly. You know it is the policy of the commission to comply with court judgments. So, we will study it and act accordingly.”
