The All Progressives Congress, APC, has warned that the response of the national working committee, NWC, of the party to the court ruling sacking the Tony Okocha led State Exco, was a direct invitation to anarchy in the state
On Monday, a Rivers State High Court sacked the caretaker committee of the APC led by Chief Tony Okocha and reinstated Chief Emeka Beke and his executive as the duly elected Exco of the party.
Despite the court ruling, the national leadership of the party on Thursday directed Okocha to commence the processes of Congress from the ward to the state levels in October.
But a statement signed by Darlington Nwauju, spokesman of the party in Rivers state on Friday said that “the danger signal is incalculable and has the potency to scare away investors as no business or investment can thrive in an atmosphere bereft of the rule of law.
“We are aware that court bailiffs took pains to serve on the National Secretariat of our party, this decision of Court”.
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Nwauju said that no individual or group of individuals has the right under the law to act, serve or represent the APC Rivers State chapter without the express approval of the validly Elected Executives of the party under Emeka Beke as doing so will lead to an affront on the court and we shall have no other option than approaching the Court to invoke its powers under law.
“We finally warn that we shall not by any means fall for the fake news peddled before the cameras on the afternoon of Thursday 15th August 2024 by Mr Festus Fuanter (Assistant National Secretary of the APC) claiming that validly elected Executives of the APC in Rivers State were long dissolved by a Court of law. This suggestion is embarrassingly untrue and most unfortunate as this speaks volumes of the capacity of this individual to maintain institutional memory.
“We must say without equivocation that the activities of the current NWC are constituting a great cog in the wheel of progress for our great party and communicate a rather taciturn posture to party cohesion while debasing pluralism of thoughts and encouraging dissent.
“Nigerians are invited to peruse the entire forty-eight (48) page judgment delivered by Justice S.H. Aprioku in Suit No. PHC/CS/3592/2023. For the sake of emphasis, the suit in question was instituted on behalf of aggrieved members of the State Executive Committee by the Secretary of the Rivers State chapter of the APC and not the Chairman.
“We are aware of Suit No. PHC/CS/925/2023 which was handled by Justice D.S. Kio of the Rivers State High Court and the decision of that Court (which was a vacation court) to ‘suspend’ two officers of our party via an Ex-parte Order and that this has since elapsed with the effluxion of time (14 days), unless, we are now saying that an Ex-parte Order can be mummified like the Egyptian Pharaohs and preserved as part of our own political tourist attraction!
“It is quite amazing that in the past few days, Nigerians have been freely served with dishes full of inconsistent stories by the major beneficiary of the illegality foisted on the party in Rivers State, one Tony Okocha, who in one breath on national television, referred to the ruling delivered by Honourable Justice S.H. Aprioku as “procured” judgement but in another breath “wags his tail” over the rulings delivered by Justice D.S. Kio of the Rivers State High Court (April 2023) and P.O. Lifu of the FHC Abuja (August 2024); both judges entertained matters sitting as vacation judges and the ousted illegal Caretaker Committee Chairman has not come out to tell Nigerians why these judges sat as vacation judges and delivered rulings which serves his desperate political agenda of balkanizing the APC in Rivers State and poisoning it with the PDAPC “cancerous” virus.
“We condemn this obvious national embarrassment on our party and plead with members of our NWC to guide themselves properly by getting very neutral interpretation of and digesting the judgment of August 12 2024, as this is the only existing judgment anywhere in Nigeria.
