The court of appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, on Monday, warned the two factions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state to desist from taking further steps to frustrate court process.
The Ojukaye Flag-Amachree faction of the party had approached the court to appeal the judgment of the state’s high court, presided over by Justice Chiwendu Nwogu.
The High Court, on October 10, further nullified all state congresses and state primaries conducted by the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree’s led executive.
The two factions led by Amachree and Peter Odike have been enmeshed in legal tussles over the conduct of APC congresses in May.
The court’s three-man panel presided over by Justice Isaiah Akeju, while addressing the parties in suit no: CAP/198/2018 yesterday, told counsel to the warring factions not to take further steps to undermine the case pending before the court until the Supreme Court rules on the appeal before it.
Justice Akeju granted the application of Kaananwi Luke, counsel to the 23 APC members who dragged the party to Port Harcourt high court to challenge their exclusion from the May 2018 ward congresses, by adjourning the matter indefinitely pending the determination of their appeal at the apex court.
Luke had told the court that the appeal of his clients in suit no: SC/764/2018, before the Supreme Court had been fixed for hearing yesterday at the same time the appellate court was sitting.
“We have served the applicants the notice. In the circumstance, we pray the court to adjourn sine die or to a known date pending the outcome of the proceedings at the Supreme Court, so as not to render the decision of this honourable court void,” he said.
Similarly, counsel to the Flag-Amachree faction, Chimenem Jerome, had implored the court to grant an order for the parties to maintain status quo ante October 10 when the lower court nullified the congresses that led to the emergence of his clients’ state executive.
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