The lawmaker representing Rivers South East district in the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Abe, says he will appeal the court ruling which nullified the primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
Reacting to the judgement in an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday, the lawmaker stated that it would be unfair to the party supporters if he doesn’t act on the ruling.
“I believe that the next step is for us to go to the Court of Appeal,” he said in a Skype interview on Sunrise Daily.
“I don’t think that justice is served in a situation where over 150,000 members of the APC who did the right thing, did not disobey the law and followed the law would be disenfranchised just like that.”
Senator Abe’s comments come one day after a Federal High court in Port Harcourt nullified the direct and indirect primaries conducted by the two APC factions in Rivers.
The court had also restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising the governorship candidates of the factions – Abe and Tonye Cole.
The presiding judge, Justice Kolawole Omotosho, held that none of the primaries was conducted according to the law.
But Senator Abe insisted that the platform on which he contested for the APC ticket was the legal faction of the party in the state.
He said, “In the eyes of the law, that is the only legal primary that was done. There are several primaries that were conducted even in this particular dispensation that was not supervised by the National Working Committee, but which the National Working Committee accepted.”
He, however, said it was up to the party to see how it would overcome its challenges and resolve the internal crisis in the state.
