Excitement as Appeal Court grants Rivers APC’s plea

THERE was jubilation yesterday in Rivers State, especially in Port Harcourt and its environs, following the  Court of Appeal’s granting of stay of execution of the judgment of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt on the fielding of candidates by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The appellate court in Port Harcourt, presided over by Justice Ali Gumel, granted the stay of execution of the judgment of Justice Kolawole Omotoso of the Federal High Court.

Justice Omotoso, on January 7,2019, disqualified the APC from participating in the 2019 general election, following the disobedience of a state high court order stopping them from holding the ward, council and state congresses as well as the state party primary elections to nominate candidates to fly the party’s flag in the elections.

The court also ordered INEC to remove the name of the party and its candidates from INEC materials concerning the polls.

The party approached the Appeal Court to grant a stay of execution to INEC and others involved, pending the decision of the Appeal Court on the matter.

The Appeal Court, in a judgment read by Justice Muhammed Mustapha, granted the stay of execution application and urged parties to maintain status quo pending ruling on the appeal.

The court said: “We have carefully gone through the applications along with the accompanied affidavits and exhibits, as well as the counter affidavits as submitted by counsel of all sides, leading us to the conclusion that the question as to whether the act sought to be stayed has already been concluded or not is not for this court or in fact for any court to speculate on.

“This is so, notwithstanding the fact that INEC, which is a party to the application chose not to challenge their position in the affidavit in support of their pleading served on us in good time.

“It is important to note that there are four appeals in this court against the same judgement, FHC/PH/CA/124 to oppose the case. They are CA/PH/37/2019 between Senator Magnus Abe and 41 others and INEC and others,  CA/PH/38/2019 between APC VS INEC and another, CA/PH/39/2019 between APC and Magnus Abe and 14 others and CA/PH/40/2019 between Tonye Patrick Cole and 48 others and Magnus Abe and 43 others.

“Parties in these appeals are appellants in one and respondents in another, except INEC, which remained respondent in all the appeals. This is a clear indication of dissatisfaction of all the parties in the same judgment for one reason or the other.

“An application for stay of execution can be granted while the applicants should hear their different submissions among them for doing so bearing in mind that the compelling reason to grant a stay is to preserve the res from destruction and thereby maintain status quo at all material time, so that if the appeal is successful at the end of the day, the proceedings in respect thereof will not be rendered nugatory.”

It added: “The multiplicity of appeals against the court judgement in this case and widespread dissatisfaction by all the parties in this case is a special circumstance, which this court is considering in granting this application.

“The multiplicity of the appeal before this court from the judgment of the lower court is a clear indication that the interest of the parties have not been satisfied and it is for this reason we exercise the discretion to grant the stay of execution.”

After the ruling, members and supporters of APC and its governorship candidate, Pastor Tonye Cole, trooped to the streets of Port Harcourt and its environs to celebrate, defying the heavy rain.

Rivers APC, through its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, declared that the main opposition party had been vindicated by the decision of the Court of Appeal.

The main opposition APC in Rivers said: “We have always said that the wheel of justice may grind slowly, sometimes annoyingly slowly, but surely justice comes ultimately. We believe that today’s (yesterday’s) judgment has vindicated APC in Rivers State.”

Cole, a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and a co-founder of Sahara Group, in his reaction to the ruling, expressed gratitude to God on the victory.

APC governorship candidate said: “I just want to take a minute to thank the Almighty God for his grace upon us all. I know without Him, this would be totally impossible. We were up against it. We still are, but our God who has  been with us throughout this journey, will see us to the end.

“I want to spare a thought for the brave judges and the entire judiciary for simply standing firm on the side of justice. We have faith in you. To all our supporters and leaders in the APC, I want to say a big thank you for keeping the faith. The times have been tough. I know, but you have showed that with God, we are already winners.

However, counsel to Magnus Abe Kanewnii Luke said INEC has already taken action by removing the names of the APC candidates from the final list published and that there was nothing again to be saved by the appeal’s ruling.

He hinted that they would appeal the ruling before the Supreme Court.

Reacting to Appeal court ruling, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, said: He (Mahmood Yakubu) is heard about Appeal Court story like every other person and it will be unwise to begin to react to such report. To the best of my knowledge, the commission has not received the ruling and not until it has received and study it before we can comment.”