Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers state, Pastor Tonye Cole has said yesterday judgment of the Supreme case was not the final pronouncement on the crisis rocking the state chapter of the party.
The Supreme Court in its pronouncement affirmed the judgement of Justice Chiwendu Nworgu on the congress conducted by the All Progressives Congress, APC in Rivers state which restrained the party from fielding candidates.
The Apex Court also addressed the issue of representation and held that Chinweikpe Chieme of the Senator Magnus Abe group of the APC is the legal representative of the APC in the state.
It, therefore, upheld the appeal of Ibrahim Umar and twenty-two other aggrieved members of the APC that they were restrained illegally from participating in the ward, local government and state congresses of the party.
But Tonye Cole in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by his media aide, Ogbonna Nwuke, entitled, “Let us keep Hope alive,” the APC governorship candidate enjoined his party faithful not to assume that Friday judgment had finally precluded the party from presenting candidates for elective offices.
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Pastor Cole noted that the Supreme Court would on Monday make final pronouncement on the legality of the party congresses conducted at the instance of the party national secretariat where its standard bearers emerged.
The statement read in part:” Our attention has been drawn to reports which suggest that Ibrahim Umar & 22 others have secured a monumental victory at the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court sat today, Friday, 8th February, 2019 to determine the issue of representation, which has been in contention. Unfortunately, when the court ruled, it did not rule in our favour.
Notwithstanding, our faith in the judiciary remains unshaken. We have confidence that justice would be done when the substantive suit is heard.
We wish to urge our numerous supporters not to panic, following the deliberate misrepresentation of facts on the social media and elsewhere. The Apex Court has not gone into the substantive matter as we speak.
The Supreme Court would be sitting on Monday, 11th February, 2019. Monday’s impending hearing, in our opinion, would be more far-reaching and a lot more consequential.
It is also proper to state that today’s ruling which centred on representation does not in any way invalidate the seasoned pronouncements of the Court of Appeal. The stays of execution ordered by justices of the appellate court on the judgments of lower courts still subsist.”
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