These are not the best of times for the River State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its candidate in next year’s governorship election, Patrick Tonye-Cole, has been disqualified by a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt.
The court hinged its decision on Tonye-Cole’s dual citizenship and noncompliance with Electoral Act by the party that nominated him.
The court’s decision followed a suit filed by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state seeking an order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to give recognition to the APC candidate over his dual citizenship.
PDP further sought an order against INEC on the grounds that Tonye-Cole’s emergence as APC flagbearer did not follow due process.
In his decision, Thursday, Justice Emmanuel Obile upheld PDP’s argument to the effect that Tonye-Cole is of dual citizenship and as such not qualified to stand for election. The judge also upheld an argument that Tonye-Cole was not validly nominated as the process that threw him up for election was not monitored by INEC.
Speaking on the development, a PDP counsel, Dike Udenna, expressed joy over the judgment. The implication of the judgement, he said, was that APC has no governorship candidate for the 2023 general election in River state.
According to him, until the decision is set aside by a higher court, Tonye-Cole can not parade himself, or lay claims to being the APC governorship candidate in River state. Also commenting, APC counsel, Collins Dike, expressed surprise at the decision.
He however hinted that the party will appeal the decision.
Spokesperson to Rivers state APC Governorship candidate Sogbeyi Eli expressed shock at the display of what he described as double standards by the court. He said the party is unperturbed by the judgment of the court, stressing that the party’s lawyers have already started the process of appealing the judgement.
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