The Federal High Court Owerri on Thursday nullified the wards, Local Government Areas and State congresses of the Imo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the result of which saw Governor Rochas Okorocha lose his grip on the party.
The court ordered the party to hold fresh congresses.
Justice Lewis Allagoa, while rejecting the objection raised by the respondents on his lack of jurisdiction, ordered APC “to be responsible, save our democracy by conducting free and fair congresses in Imo State.”
The exhibits tendered by the plaintiffs suggesting that there was no ward congress in the state on May 5, “was factual,” the judge said.
He also said that the recorded “press interview between the state commissioner of police, the state governor, Rochas Okorocha and Senator Osita Izunaso that there was no APC wrd congress in Imo State on May 5 “was justiciable in law.”
Justice Allagoa admitted a report of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which stated that there was no APC ward congress in Imo State on May 5.
A faction of the party loyal to the state governor, had gone to court seeking a declaration that the ward congress of the APC in Imo State which was fixed for May 5 was inconclusive and did not hold, “since there was no result therefrom.”
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