Barely forty-eight hours to the presidential and national assembly elections nationwide, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state, has expressed optimism that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will include its candidates, on the ballot for the elections.
Chris Finebone, the state Publicity Secretary of the party said this on Thursday at a press conference held after members of the party protested at the state INEC head office.
Recall that Justice Chinwendu Worgu of the Rivers State High Court nullified the congresses and the indirect primaries conducted by the Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi’s faction of the party.
The Supreme Court in two separate rulings in February affirmed the rulings of the High Court.
A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on January 7 barred the INEC from recognising candidates of the party.
But Finebone said the judgement of the court was misinterpreted.
“After a meeting of the State Working Committee of our party in the State today in which we meticulously deliberated on the recent court rulings of various courts especially the decision of the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt yesterday to further re-affirm two earlier orders that stayed the execution of the judgments of the lower court, our conclusion is that the APC and its candidates will now, most certainly, be on the ballot this Saturday.
“No order or judgement given since, including orders given by the Supreme Court on both jurisdiction and representation have said otherwise.
“We opted not to rely on a media circus to convey our right to be included. Unlike the many news reports that were suggesting we were dead and buried, we have since seen the orders and the Supreme Court judgement on the stay of execution which proves beyond reasonable doubt that INEC has an obligation to relist APC or risk being sanctioned for excluding us and disobeying a subsisting court order.
“We hail once again both decisions of the stay of execution, taken by the Court of Appeal recently and their reaffirmation of both yesterday. These decisions mean that nothing is stopping INEC from placing APC on the ballot. We welcome the moves by INEC to put us back on the ballot, as the alternative would have confirmed once and for all, the genuine fear that they are working for the PDP,” the statement read.
