The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has excluded the names of the ruling All Progressives Congress senatorial candidate from the National Assembly election candidates list.
The exclusion followed a judgement which declared the primaries held by the party in the state null and void.
On January 7, a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt delivered judgments in two separate suits, asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to acknowledge Rivers State’s APC candidates following the controversies that marred the party’s primary in October 2018.
Two factions, one faction loyal to the minister of transportation Rotimi Amaechi and the other loyal to serving senator, Magnus Abe, had conducted parallel primaries that produced two sets of candidates.
While the faction loyal Ameachi produced Tonye Cole as its the state governorship candidate, the other loyal to Abe, produced him as its own candidate.
The national secretariat of the APC, however, forwarded Cole’s name to INEC.
In a suit filed by Abe, the court declared that the APC, for failing to respect the law, must bear the consequences of her disobedience to the law.
The judge Kolawole Omotosho maintained that Rivers APC would not participate in the gubernatorial, Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly elections.
Omotosho said the plaintiffs do not have legal standing given the fact that they hinged their request on the ruling of the state high court, which nullified primaries conducted by the APC.
He, therefore, issued a restraining order, asking INEC not to recognise the candidates of the APC until a higher court of competent jurisdiction sets aside the ruling.
