The reinstated leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has declared all nominations from the party’s recently concluded primaries null, void, and completely invalid.
The primary elections in question had produced Kingsley Chinda—a close ally of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike—as the party’s governorship candidate following the withdrawal of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Other loyalists of the FCT Minister had also emerged as APC flagbearers for the 2027 National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections.
This counter-move follows a significant ruling by Justice Elfreida Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu of the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt.
The appellate court upheld a Rivers State High Court decision that nullified the congresses that originally produced Chief Tony Okocha as the state’s APC chairman.
Reacting to the judicial development on Monday, Darlington Nwauju, the spokesperson for the reinstated faction led by Chief Emeka Beke, announced that the judgment strips legitimacy from the rival camp.
He stated that any nominations, representations, communications, or documentations carried out on behalf of the Rivers State APC between December 20, 2024, and May 29, 2026, are entirely without legal standing.
Nwauju further urged the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) to withdraw the Certificates of Return previously issued to candidates from Okocha’s faction following last year’s local government elections.
He demanded that these certificates be handed over to candidates from the Beke-led faction instead, in compliance with the Court of Appeal’s verdict.
Currently, candidates produced by the Okocha faction are running the affairs of the state’s local government councils.
Reflecting on the legal battle, Nwauju praised the lower court’s firmness in handling the matter:“Recall that Justice Obomanu courageously acted in defense of the dignity of court and the sanctity of the rule of law by stamping disciplinary authority of the court in annulling all Congresses purportedly conducted in Rivers State by Alhaji Ganduje in flagrant disobedience of a valid order of court.
“As it stands today, only a higher court can set aside Justice Obomanu’s order which the Court of Appeal ruling delivered by Justice Elfreda Williams-Dawodu has rightfully sustained.”
He outlined that only two future legal paths remain possible for posterity: either the courts order completely fresh congresses to resolve injuries suffered by the original plaintiffs, or the court finds no fault in the APC’s actions and rejects the prayers. Whichever way it goes, Nwauju insists the past congresses are entirely dead.
“Whether the courts choose option A or B above, one thing is constant and that is the fact that the Congresses of Nov 23 2024 and November 30 2024 have been buried!! What then are the consequences of the ruling of May 29 2026 to the APC in Rivers State?
“Our friends laying claim to the leadership of the party were neither elected executives of the party based on Justice Obomanu’s December 20 2024 ruling, nor Caretaker Committee members of the APC based on Justice Aprioku’s August 12 2024 judgement annulling that arrangement and restoring Chief Emeka Beke’s leadership, therefore, they had no right to represent the party in whatever capacity.”
Nwauju lamented that the state chapter had been reduced to an exclusive club where founding fathers, former chairmen, presidential aspirants, financial pillars, and serving lawmakers were disqualified from party primaries on ridiculously trivial grounds.
He warned that those trying to destroy the foundation of the Rivers APC were steering it down a reckless path to destruction.
Invoking a past judicial precedent, Nwauju referenced a harsh lesson from Nigeria’s apex court:“If all of us agree that we should return this matter to the High Court to start afresh, the Congresses have already been dismantled and buried and like APC was told on 12th February 2019 by the Supreme Court of Nigeria for disobeying the order issued by Justice Chiwendu Nworgu of the Rivers State High Court, “you cannot benefit from your stupidity”.”
The spokesperson concluded by stating that all steps taken under the illegal executive remain void under the law:“All nominations, representations, communications, documentations including decisions reached onbehalf of the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress between December 20 2024 to Friday 29th May 2026, with the seal or imprimatur of members of the illegal executives, their agents, assigns or privies, is to the extent of the subsistence of the orders of Court, illegal, null, void and of no effect.
“The nominations of candidates made to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for the August 2025 Local Government Elections onbehalf of Rivers APC were made by persons unknown to law and to that extent illegal and all declarations and Certificates of Return (CoR) issued in favour of the All Progressives Congress must be retrieved and deservedly go to the duly nominated chairmen and vice chairmen communicated to RSIEC on August 14 2025 by the Chief Emeka Beke led executives.
“That all primaries conducted for selection of candidates/flagbearers in the name of the APC in Rivers State be immediately reviewed by the National Working Committee to avert a repeat of the Zamfara State APC experience; that all records of activities including primaries/conventions wherein the illegal executives /impersonators participated directly or indirectly in and/or contributed to declarations /returns on behalf of the All Progressives Congress, are to the extent of the illegality of their activities, null and void and must therefore be immediately expunged from the records of the All Progressives Congress in Nigeria.”
