Rivers State may never cease to throw up some complex issues in Nigeria’s democratic journey. That Governor Siminalayi Fubara has been pressured to abandon his second term bid rightfully guaranteed by the constitution is no longer news. But while the governor’s traducers are sky-high celebrating, it may still not be Uhuru yet for them if the rule of law were to be strictly applied in the latest verdict delivered by the Court of Appeal, concerning the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state.
A PortHarcourt High Court, led by Justice Godswill Obomanu had on the December 20, 2024, issued an ex parte order restraining the All Progressives Congress from conducting its congresses in the state. However, the party went ahead with the said congresses, which midwifed the emergence of Tony Okocha as state party chairman, alongside other executive members. However,dissatisfied with the order, Okocha filed an appeal at the Appeal Court in suit number CA/PH/523/2026, arguing that the high court had no jurisdiction in the matter and, as such, was not empowered to make the said order.
Interestingly, the appellate court last Friday in Port Harcourt, in a decision delivered by Justice Elfreida Williams-Dawodu, affirmed the jurisdiction of the high court in issuing that order and threw out the appeal for want of competence. It needs to be emphasized that Chief Emeka Bekee, then an ally of the former governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi was the duly recognized state chairman of APC before Okocha and his executive members was imposed. It should equally be noted that after the disobedience to the ex parte order stopping the congress which produced Okocha, the same court which issued the ex parte order also nullified the outcome of the congress.
Buoyed by the latest Appeal Court verdict, the Emeka Beke-led faction of the party has called on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC to cancel the primaries that brought in Kingsley Chinda and all other APC candidates for the 2027 election without delay.
Spokesman of the state chapter of the now authentic faction of the party, Darlington Nwauju, who made the call at a press briefing in Port Harcourt, recounted the three previous court rulings against the Tony Okocha-led group, and demanded that with the confirmation of the nullification of the Okocha-led executive committee by the Appeal Court, the time has come for the NWC to recognize the Bekee led executive and cancel all exercises carried out by the nullified faction, including all the recently conducted primaries including that for the office of governor
Nwauju demanded: “That all nominations, representations, communications, documentations including decisions reached on behalf of the Rivers State APC between December 20, 2024 to Friday 29th May 2026, with the seal or imprimatur of members of the illegal executives, their agents, assigns or privies, is to the extent of the subsistence of the orders of court, illegal, null, void, and of no effect.
“That as at today, there is no other legally constituted executives of the APC in Rivers State existing outside that led by Chief Emeka Beke and that the nomination of candidates made to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for the August 2025 local government elections on behalf of Rivers APC were made by persons unknown to law and to that extent illegal and all declarations and certificates of return issued in favour of the All Progressives Congress must be retrieved and deservedly go to the duly nominated chairmen and vice chairmen communicated to RSIEC on August 14, 2025 by the Chief Emeka Beke-led executives.”
According to him, every lawful step shall now be taken to demand for the declaration, recognition, and swearing-in of all local government chairmen and vice chairmen duly and validly nominated by the Beke led-executive which were ignobly rejected by the RSIEC management; and that all primaries conducted for selection of candidates/flagbearers in the name of the APC in Rivers State be immediately reviewed by the National Working Committee to avert a repeat of the Zamfara State APC experience.
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The court – backed executive also demanded that all records of activities, including primaries/conventions wherein the illegal executives/impersonators participated directly or indirectly in and/or contributed to declarations/returns on behalf of the All Progressives Congress, are to the extent of the illegality of their activities, null and void and must therefore be immediately expunged from the records of the All Progressives Congress.
Nwauju quoted Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, speaking on September 30 2024, as saying that “disobedience to court orders or non-compliance with judicial directives is a direct affront to democracy and an invitation to anarchy. As such, it is critical that we respect and observe all the features of an enduring democracy, for in doing so, we maintain the delicate balance that sustains our society”.
He blamed the defunct Umar Ganduje-led NWC for the crisis in the APC in Rivers State, alleging that the NWC shunned many court rulings to install a caretaker committee and ignored court orders to organize congresses, primaries and other lawful activities of the party on the state.
Observers are keenly waiting to see how the APC hierarchy will navigate the seeming judicial albatross, though largely self inflicted. Will the party continue to trample on the rule of law and allow the now outlawed Tony Okocha led exco to hold sway?
