There are strong indications that the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State may lose out in the next general elections as the party is yet to obtain a stay of execution judgment from the court to meet up with today’s deadline given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (NEC) for the submission of candidates’ names for the elections.

A new application for a stay of execution of the order of a Federal High Court against the party was declined on Wednesday by the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt.

The Appeal Court panel to handle the matter declined to entertain it, stating that the application was premature.

The APC and its candidates for the 2019 elections, led by the governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, had appealed the ruling of the High Court which barred the party from fielding them as candidates for the election.

The appellants had prayed the court to stay execution on the order of the court to enable its candidates participate in the polls.

When the matter came up, the leader of the Visiting Appeal Panel, Justice C. N. Uwa, said the application was premature to be heard.

Uwa stated that the court could not make any order on the matter when appeal on it had not been entered properly.

She added that there was no record to show that an appeal had been entered on the matter, and urged the parties to go back to the registry to put their house in order.

Speaking with newsmen outside the courtroom, Emenike Ebete, one of the counsel for Tonye Cole, said the court couldn’t take the application because they didn’t have the mandate to handle the application.

He said: “We will wait for the registrar of the Court of Appeal to give the mandate to the panel or give the mandate to another panel that will come to take the judgment.

“Like the judge said, that the appeal was not ripe, we will go back to the registrar for proper proceedings and come back to the court, either today or tomorrow.”

Also speaking, Henry Bello, counsel to Senator Magnus Abe, said the party was in court to ensure that the authentic candidates of APC would be recognised.

Bello said they brought an appeal for a stay of execution of the judgment of the Federal High Court that ruled out the candidature of Tonye Cole and Magnus Abe.

“Our contention is that the Federal High Court nearly gives effect constant to the provision of section 287 of the constitution of the judgment of the High Court.

“We wasted time today, we should have waited for the appeal to enter properly before we come to this honourable court, and also give them the opportunity to go through the process and see if the Federal High Court is right in their judgment or wrong,” Bello said.

•Sourced from a Daily Independent report

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