JUST IN: Court nullifies Rivers APC Primaries, restrains INEC from recognising Cole, Abe as candidates

A Federal High court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, has given a judgement restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from presenting Tonye Cole and Magnus Abe as governorship candidates in the general elections.

The court also nullified all direct and indirect primaries conducted by both factions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

Justice James Omotosho, while delivering the judgement in Port Harcourt on Monday, said none of the primaries were conducted according to the law.

The judge noted that the INEC did not do well by submitting names of candidates without consideration of previous court orders.

One of the counsels to the APC factions, however, said told journalists that the judgement will be appealed at the Supreme Court.

Crisis erupted in the Rivers APC during the governorship primaries held in 2018 in the state.

Senator Abe in a direct governorship primary conducted by a faction of the APC was declared winner after he got 144, 929 votes. In an indirect primary held in the state by another faction of the APC, Cole was declared the winner with 3,329 votes.

The national leadership of the APC, however, submitted Cole’s name as its candidate insisting he emerged from the primary conducted by the party.

Abe’s faction then approached the Supreme Court over the Appeal Court ruling validating the congresses of the APC in Rivers State. The Supreme Court however invalidated the ruling of the Appeal Court and ordered the parties to return to a lower court.