Following the reprieve for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara state allowing them to field candidates in the 2019 general elections, there is now confusion as to the fate of the party in Rivera state.
There have been different rulings on the situation in Rivers state with the party holding onto the ruling which upheld the order of stay of execution given by the Court of Appeal by the Supreme Court.
But the commission has insisted that there is no concrete order from the Supreme Court ordering it to accept the list of the party’s candidates in Rivers state.
INEC chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood said there was no relationship between the issue in Zamfara and the situation in Rivers, adding that the Commission had to jettison its earlier stance to exclude the APC in Zamfara based on the judgement of a Court of Appeal in Abuja which ordered that APC be restored on the ballot in the National Assembly, Governorship and State House of Assembly elections scheduled for 23rd February and 9th March 2019 respectively.
But Professor Yakubu however insisted that the APC remained excluded from the elections in Rivers state citing a judgment of the Supreme Court, while apparently making reference to the judgment of Justice Sidi Barge of the apex court, which upheld the order of a Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, by Justice Chiwendu Nworgu, nullifying the All Progressives Congress primaries in Rivers State, Professor Yakubu insisted that the chances of the APC in Rivers was foreclosed.
Responding to questions on the situation in Rivers, he said he was aware of a ruling of Supreme Court of February 11, 2019 delivered by Justice Olabode Rhodes Vivour, which upheld an order of stay of execution of the Court of Appeal of the judgment of Justice Nworgu of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, the INEC chairman said the ruling has not been brought to his attention.
He said: “I am not aware there is any live order in the case of Rivers that INEC has not obeyed. By Thursday, I was aware there was a Court of Appeal judgment but everybody knows what the judgment is. I don’t know there is any live order that INEC has not obeyed in the case of Rivers.“