Court refuses to stop APC membership revalidation in Rivers

By Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

The state High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has refused to grant an order stopping the proposed membership revalidation exercise of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

A faction of the APC loyal to Sen. Magnus Abe had sought an order halting the exercise in Rivers.

Five members of the faction, Emmanuel Deeyah, Golden Chioma, Queen Enyi, Ogundu Mini and Nkesi Chindah, who were plaintiffs in the matter, also lost their attempt to restrain the APC and its National Caretaker Committee Chairman, Mai Mala Buni, from recognizing Isaac Abbot-Ogbobula as the CTC Chairman saddled with the responsibility of conducting the exercise.

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The five plaintiffs filed the application seeking an order of interlocutory injunction through their lawyer, Henry Bello.

But the presiding judge, Justice Mark Chuku refused to grant the injunction prayed by Deeyah and others.

Chuku, however, granted relief of the court for the plaintiffs to serve the second and third defendants the court processes through substituted means by pasting it on the wall of the office of the APC in the state.

He later recused himself from the matter and ordered that the case file be transferred to the Chief Judge of the state for reassignment to a regular court.