BY ONYEKACHUKWU IBEZIM – In a dramatic judicial earthquake that now threatens to reshape the political landscape of Rivers State, the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt on Friday, upheld the judgement of the Rivers State High Court nullifying the congresses of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that produced Chief Tony Okocha and other members of his executive council in the state
By officially pulling the rug out from under Chief Tony Okocha, the appellate justices have stripped Okocha and his entire executive council of their power and thrown the ruling party’s state machinery into absolute chaos
Considered allies of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, the sacked Chairman and his exco had approached the Appeal Court to upturn the judgement of Justice Godswill Obomanu of the Rivers State High Court who had on December 20, 2024, issued an ex-parte order restraining the APC from conducting its congresses in the state.
However, the factional group ignored the order and went ahead with the said ward, local government, and state congresses which purportedly midwifed the emergence of Tony Okocha as party chairman alongside other executive members.
A ruling delivered by Justice Elfreida Williams-Dawodu (JCA) of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, affirmed the jurisdiction of the high court in issuing that order and threw out the appeal for want of competence. By upholding the decision of the Rivers State High Court nullifying the Congresses, all representations and decisions taken by the Chief Tony Okocha led exco on behalf of the APC, between December 20 2024 till date, are null, void and of no effect.
Additionally, the candidates produced by the party ahead of the general elections in the state now face the risk of being disqualified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Counsel to Emeka Beke-led APC, Emenike Ebete, who confirmed the judgement, explained thus: “An appeal was filed by Tony Okocha exco against the order of Justice Obomanu that nullified the congresses that were conducted by APC while the matter was in court. Now, before those congresses were conducted, the court gave an ex parte order restraining them from conducting those congresses. They disobeyed the order of court, went ahead and conducted local government, state, and ward congresses. So we went back to the high court and prayed that those congresses be nullified, having disobeyed the court order, and the court nullified the congresses.”
Ebete further said, “They appealed to the Court of Appeal against the ex parte order, and in that appeal they were saying that the court has no jurisdiction to make any order at all and that the court should strike out the suit for want of jurisdiction. If that had happened, then the order nullifying the congresses would’ve all gone.
“That appeal was dismissed because the court said the appeal was incompetent. We’ve not gotten the full text of the judgment, but the good news is that the Court said their appeal was incompetent. and struck it out, meaning that the order the high court made nullifying their congresses still stands.”
However, he stressed that this appeal has nothing to do with the judgement of Justice Sika Aprioku that sacked Tony Okocha and his exco as the leadership of the APC in Rivers state.
But reacting to the judgement, the Tony Okocha led executives said there is no threat to their status pending full trial and according to the State Publicity Secretary of APC, Chibike Ikenga, the Court of Appeal only gave interlocutory appeal and sent the matter back to the Court of first instance for full trial.
In a statement on Saturday, Ikenga said: “The Leadership of the All Progressives Congress, Rivers State are aware of the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt dated Friday, 29th May, 2026 in an Interlocutory Appeal and Matter sent back to the Court of first instance for full trial in(APPEAL NO: CA/PH/523/2024: APC & ANOR. V OKWU JOEBROWN NDIKE filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the jurisdiction of the High court directing the parties to ‘maintain status quo’ and also challenging the competence of the suit before the Rivers State High Court.
“There is no threat to the status of the EXCO pending full trial. Our Lawyers will study the full judgment and advise on the next step. We advise party faithful to remain calm and not panic by the deliberate misrepresentation of the facts and circumstances of the judgement by those who lack in-depth knowledge of what transpired in the Court.”
