Rivers: Court sacks 3 Labour Party House of Reps candidates, party reacts

A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Friday sacked 3 National Assembly candidates of the Labour Party for next year’s general elections.

The candidates affected are those for Obio-Akpor federal constituency and the Port Harcourt federal constituencies 1 and 2.

The Peoples Democratic Party in the state had dragged the Labour Party to court over its alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the conduct of the party’s primaries.

The PDP sought the court to nullify the primaries and direct the Independent National Electoral Commission to disqualify the candidates.

The Presiding Judge, Justice Stephen Daylop-Pam in his judgment agreed with the originating summon of the PDP that challenged the competency of the Labour Party to nominate candidates in the primaries that INEC “did not monitor”.

Justice Daylop-Pam also ruled that the PDP proved that INEC did not monitor the primary elections of the affected constituencies and ordered the electoral body not to recognize the affected candidates of the Labour Party for the 2023 general election.

In the meantime, the Chairman of the Labour party in Rivers state, Dienye Pepple, has vowed that his party will challenge the judgement at the Court of Appeal.

In a statement, Pepple claimed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is trying to run for elections in the state uncontested.

The statement reads in part: “On the 4th of November, 2022 an unclear and bias judgement was given by a Federal High Court sittng in Rivers State nullifying the Primaries elections of three (3) of our candidates that has already been substituted for Federal House of Representatives in Rivers East Senatorial District, Namely;
1.) Phalga 1
2.) Phalga 2
3.) Obio/Akpor.

“It is Crystal clear that the PDP wants to contest the elections alone as they have taken virtually all other political Parties to court in a bid to disqualify all.

“For us in Labour Party, the judgment does not represent the true reality of things as the affected Candidates has already been substituted, hence the Party is already preparing to appeal the matter for the affected constituencies as we are still hopeful that justice would prevail.

“The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has no Locus on this matter and their efforts to discourage our people to go to the poll and vote for our credible candidates would be defeated with God on our side.”