Court nullifies APC primaries in Rivers, sacks candidates

A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has nullified the Primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State.The court gave the decision yesterday in a suit brought before it by some aggrieved members of the party who had during the primaries of the party lamented exclusion.It would recall that during the APC primaries that some members of the party had alleged exclusion and took protests to the state Secretariat of the party in Port Harcourt.However, One George Orlu and four others who claimed to have purchased nomination forms had approached the court requesting that the primaries of APC in the state be nullified following their alleged exclusion in the process.The court in its decision yesterday ruled that the persons were unlawfully excluded from the primaries.Justice E.A. Obile, in his ruling yesterday, held that the aggrieved persons were shut out of the primaries unlawfully, adding that the process amounted to nullity.Obile in the judgment agreed with the plaintiffs that they were wrongly excluded in the process to participate in the party primaries.He, therefore, ruled that all those elected from the primary stand nullifed and should not be recognized as candidates.Davies Iheamnachor, Vanguard