By John Amieyeofori
The lingering crisis within the All
Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state has become a major blessing
to the state ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which remained
unchallenged in the forthcoming general elections.
It is all
smiles for PDP as all candidates of APC have been barred from contesting
elections in Rives state by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) following orders of the courts.
INEC’s Resident
Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr Obo Effanga, said the
decision by the commission followed the outcome of the ruling on the
litigation between two factions in the state’s APC.
Effanga noted
that the APC factions of Sen. Magnus Abe and that of the Minister of
Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, had been in court over the conduct of
congresses by the party.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
reports that a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, had on Monday
ordered INEC to expunge the names of candidates representing the APC in
Rivers in the February and March general elections.
The REC said that INEC had to obey the ruling of the court.
The
presiding judge, Justice James Omotosho, ruled on the suit brought
before him, asking the court not to recognise any candidate from the
state APC.
Omotosho referred to an earlier ruling by the Rivers
High Court, which nullified the ward, local government and state
congresses held by the state APC.
“All nominations in the APC,
from governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and others, are
hereby nullified and void and set aside.
“Only political parties
that conducted valid primaries are eligible to produce candidates for
the general elections,” the judge ruled.
With the ruling, the main alternative opened to electorate in the state is PDP which APC has been threatening for some years.
(NAN)
Leave a Reply