The Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt has backed a high court decision that wiped out the ward, local government, and state congresses of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State. Those congresses had brought in Tony Okocha and his team as party leaders.
Here is the background. On December 20, 2024, Justice Godswill Obomanu of the Rivers State High Court issued an ex parte order stopping the APC from holding its congresses. But the party went ahead anyway, and those congresses led to Tony Okocha becoming chairman.
Okocha did not like that order, so he appealed. He argued the high court had no authority to make such an order. But the appeal court, with Justice Elfreida Williams-Dawodu leading the panel, disagreed. It said the high court did have the power to issue that order and threw out the appeal because it was not properly filed.
Emenike Ebete, a lawyer for the Emeka Beke-led APC group, confirmed the ruling. He explained that Okocha’s side had argued the high court lacked jurisdiction. If they had won, the order nullifying the congresses would have been tossed out too. But the appeal court said the appeal was not valid, so the high court’s original order still stands.
Ebete was careful to point out that this case is separate from another ruling by Justice Sika Aprioku that had already removed Okocha and his exco as the legitimate APC leadership in Rivers State.
The APC, however, pushed back. In a statement from publicity secretary Chibike Ikenga, the party said they have requested a certified copy of the appeal court’s judgment. Once they get it, their lawyers will figure out what to do next.
