Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Court of Appeal, sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has dismissed an application for joinder filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the state, Tonye Cole, for lack of merit.
Also, the court dismissed another application for joinder by the sacked chairman of the APC in the state, Ojukaye Flag Amachree.
The Appeal Court gave the decision in Port Harcourt, on Wednesday, when it resumed proceeding on the appeal filed by the APC challenging the ruling of a state High Court, which sacked its elected executive members.
It would be recalled that Justice Chiwendu Nworgu of the state’s High Court had annulled all the congresses of the APC in the state, which produced Flag-Amachree and other executive members.
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The Appeal Court would also decide on whether the APC congresses have any effect on the primaries that produced Tonye Cole and other candidates of the party.
The Special Appeal Panel set up to hear the matter between the two factions of the APC in the state, led by Justice Abubakar Yahaya, gave the ruling after the parties in the matter adopted their processes.
The presiding judge, Yahaya, who read the unanimous decision, said the application of Cole and Amachree lacked merit.
He reserved judgement of the appeal by the APC challenging the jurisdiction of Justice Nworgu to hear the matter in the first place indefinitely.
The court, however, adjourned the last appeal indefinitely, until the outcome of the pending matter before the Supreme Court fixed for March 8, 2019.