Court of Appeal upholds nullification of Rivers APC

A Court of Appeal panel in Port Harcourt has upheld a lower court ruling that nullified the congresses which produced the executive committee of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State. The decision, delivered on Friday, May 29, 2026, affirms that the party’s 2024 ward, local government, and state congresses were invalid because they were conducted in defiance of a court order.

The legal dispute originated on December 20, 2024, when Justice Godswill Obomanu of the Rivers State High Court issued an ex parte order restraining the APC from conducting its congresses in the state. Despite this order, the party proceeded with the events, which resulted in Chief Tony Okocha emerging as the state chairman alongside other executive members. Following the congresses, the high court nullified them, citing the party's disregard for the judicial injunction.

Okocha’s faction appealed the nullification, arguing in appeal number CAPH/523/2024 that the high court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter and issue the initial restraining order. However, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Elfreida Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu, unanimously dismissed the appeal. The...