Tina Amanda
A Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt has reserved the judgment in the case filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole.
The Court’s decision follows an appeal filed by the APC over the judgment of the Federal High Court that sacked its guber candidate, Cole.
Our correspondent reports that when the matter came up before the Appeallate Court, Counsel’s representing the parties argued and adopted their final written addresses.
The three-man panel of the Appeal led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh after listening to arguments of the legal representations, reserved judgment on a date that will be communicated to the parties.
One of the Counsels to APC, Chimenem Jerome, in an interview with our correspondent said the trial court was wrong by unestimation in law, holding that PDP did not have a locus standi to institute suit against APC in the sense that it did not hold valid congresses to elect its delegates.
“That is not the position of the law, the position of law is that PDP as another political party did not have that locus standi and the Federal High Court in itself did not have jurisdiction to entertain the matter.”
Recall that a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt and presided over by Justice Emmanuel Obille had in its judgment on a suit filed by the PDP, disqualified Cole from contesting the 2023 elections for allegedly having dual citizenship, among others.
