Trending 
The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt has upheld a High Court order nullifying the Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) ward, local government and state congresses that produced the executive committee led by Tony Okocha.
The appellate court dismissed an appeal with the number CA/PH/523/2026, filed by Okocha, challenging the jurisdiction of the high court to restrain the party from conducting the congresses.
The dispute dates back to December 20, 2024, when Justice Godswill Obomanu of the Rivers State High Court issued an ex parte order stopping the APC from holding the congresses.
Despite the order, the party proceeded with the exercises, which resulted in the emergence of Okocha as the party chairman and other state executives.
Following the conduct of the congresses, the high court subsequently nullified them on the grounds that they were held in defiance of a subsisting court order.
Okocha later approached the Court of Appeal, arguing that the high court lacked jurisdiction over the matter and therefore had no authority to issue the restraining order.
However, in a judgment delivered by Justice Elfreida Williams-Dawodu, the appellate court affirmed the jurisdiction of the high court in issuing that order and struck out the appeal.
Confirming the judgement, Counsel to the Emeka Beke-led APC faction, Emenike Ebete, said the appellate court’s decision means the high court order invalidating the congresses remains in force.
According to him, the appeal sought to challenge the jurisdiction of the high court and, if successful, would have undermined the basis for the order nullifying the congresses.
He said the appeal was struck out after the court found it incompetent.
“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 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,” he added.
Ebete, however, clarified that the judgment is separate from another ruling by Justice Sika Aprioku, which removed Okocha and his executive from the leadership of the APC in Rivers State.
Reacting to the judgment, the Okocha-led APC expressed disagreement with the appellate court’s decision and said it had applied for a certified true copy of the judgment.
In a statement signed by the party’s publicity secretary, Chibike Ikenga, the party said its lawyers would study the judgment and advise on the next course of action once the full text becomes available.
“We have applied for the judgement of the Court of Appeal delivered today. Once the copy of the judgement is made available, our lawyers will address us on the next line of action.”
