Cites contempt of court, legal consequences
Federal lawmaker accuses Odigie-Oyegun of ulterior motives
Admin l Saturday, May 19, 2018
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, ward, local and state congresses which have been rescheduled to hold this weekend have, again, been rejected by a faction of the party, citing contempt of court order as the basis for its inability to participate.
Deputy Chairman of the APC in Rivers State, Prince Peter Odike, in a statement issued at 6.45 AM, Saturday, May 19, in Port Harcourt, declared that the APC cannot conduct any congress in Rivers State because the matter is before the court of law. The statement said that it will be illegal to hold any congress. Rivers State since the extant restraining order granted by Justice Chiwendu Nwogu, has not been vacated by a superior court.
The statement titled: “Important Public Announcement reads in part: “This is to inform members of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, the National Secretary, Mai Bala Bunu and the National Legal Adviser, Muiz Banire SAN, that as law abiding party faithful, we understand that the issue of conducting APC congresses in Rivers State is subjudice, the Rivers State High Court being seised of the matter in the case of Ibrahim Uma and 23 Ors Vs. All Progressives Congress, and having issued a restraining order stopping further congresses in Rivers State pending determination of the substantive suit.”
“We are therefore constrained to obey the order of court in line with the change mantra of the APC. This announcement has become important in order to alert law abiding APC members in Rivers State, the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, the National Secretary, Mai Bala Bunu and the National Legal Adviser, Muiz Banire SAN, that anyone who proceeds to do anything in the name of Rivers APC congresses under any guise today the 19th of May, 2018, or any other date, contrary to a subsisting court order may be doing so in contempt of court and must be prepared to face the consequences.”
Also Speaking on the rescheduled ward, local government and state congresses in the state, Elder Chidi Wihoka, representing Ikwerre/Emohua Federal Constituency, said he would never participate because: “I am not among those who disobey court orders.”
He charged: “The hurried arrangement to hold the rescheduled congresses is wrong and smacks of ulterior motives. How can you cancel an election in evening and hold the same election on the next day? What the chairman of the party is doing is wrong. His directive that the ward congress hold today, Saturday, May 19, is in breach of the APC guidelines on the conduct of congresses.”
Wihoka stated: “All we know is that the congresses have been cancelled. The said letter rescheduling the congresses has no date. Due process must be followed. We are not in a banana kingdom. We will have nothing to do with the so-called congresses. What the national chairman of the party is doing must be condemned by all well-meaning Nigerians. We will not not participate in any of the congresses because to do so will be to disobey the extant court order restraining the party from further conducting congresses in Rivers State.”
However, the Publicity Secretary of the Rivers State chapter of the APC, Chris Finebone, said in Port Harcourt, on Friday evening, May 18, that aspirants who paid for tellers should come to party’s secretariat to pick up the nomination forms. He said those who cannot collect their nomination forms because of the short notice can do so on Saturday at the secretariat, May 19, when the rescheduled ward congress was supposed to be taking in all 319 wards in the state.
But Elder Wihoka countered by saying that most of the aspirants were in the rural areas. He wondered how it was possible for them to travel to Port Harcourt at such short notice and go back to the ward to fulfil conditions stipulated by the party to enable them participate in the ward congress. A former Commissioner in the state, Dr. Ipalibo Harry, lamented that some aspirants from the riverine areas usually spend up to three hours on boat from their communities to Port Harcourt.
He wondered how the aspirants can return to Port Harcourt to submit their nomination forms after securing the signatures of their guarantors at the various units at the party secretariat and go back to their communities on boat to participate in the ward congress. Dr. Harry decried the frenetic rush in holding the rescheduled ward congress, pointing out that the whole arrangement was untidy and smacks of a deliberate attempt to circumvent the party’s established electoral guidelines.
State Chairman of the party, Chief Davis Ibiamu-Ikanya, who spoke on Friday evening called on members of the party to take advantage of the fresh opportunity given to aspirants by the national chairman of the party.
The Senator representing Rivers South East, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, whose governorship ambition the leader of the party in the state, Amaechi, has said repeatedly that he would not support; and seen as the cause of the crisis that has roiled the conduct of the congresses in Rivers State is yet to comment on the latest developments.
