Delta Decides 2019: Forget The Bogus Lies, Our Party Has Candidates, APC Declares

By Daniel Dafe

The Prophet Jones Ode Erue-led executive of the All Progressives Congress, Delta State, has reacted to the news making the rounds from an online publication that the party has no candidates for the 2019 general elections as a result of the judgment of a Court of Appeal delivered recently.

In a press release, the party described the online publication “as malicious, vexatious and misleading,” saying that it was done by “some mischievous and disgruntled elements, and not only an erroneous claim, but a total and complete falsehood and an evil misrepresentation of the judgment of the Court.”

The party said: “The appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress through their lawyer Chief Adeniyi Akintola, SAN, was against the decision of the Federal High Court, Asaba presided over by the Honourable Justice TB Adegoke to handle the case filed before her by Chief Cyril Ogodo as a pre election matter. It was these orders made by the trial judge TB Adegoke on the 17th of October, 2018 and 1st November 2018 respectively as to the procedure to be adopted by the trial court that was appealed against by the APC.”

The press release continued: “And in their well considered judgment, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal on the grounds that the Appellants failed to seek leave before appealing and the orders made by the trial court on the 17^th of October, 2018 and 1st November, 2018 remains valid, effectively sending the case back to the Federal High Court Asaba for continuation of the trial of the case before Hon. Justice TB Adegoke.”

According to them, “the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered did not make any order or decision on the Party’s candidates for the 2019 general elections. “The implication of the judgment is that the trial court is to continue with the case filed by Chief Cyril Ogodo, adding that “no order or orders was made by the Court of Appeal with respect to the candidates of the party for the 2019 general elections as the issue was never argued before the Court of Appeal.”

While urging members to ignore the said publication, describing it as one without foundation, the party said that the names of candidates of the party submitted to INEC remain the authentic candidates for the elections.

“We are therefore calling on all party faithful to work for their victory in the coming elections. We are very sure of victory at the end of this legal journey and ultimately at the polls despite this lame distraction by disruptive elements,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the Media Director of the APC Campaign Council, Zik Zulu Okafor, responding to the claims by the online source that APC has no candidates for the 2019 elections as a result of the Court of Appeal judgment, said the publication is a mischievous and parochial interpretation of a simple court judgment, saying that “it has nothing to do with the substantive case.”

He added: PDP is manipulating some elements in APC to get some hope because in Delta State PDP is as good as gone.”