Members of the dissolved Rivers State Executive Committee, EXCO, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have dragged the national leadership of the party to court to challenge their dissolution.
The dissolved EXCO members are also challenging the appointment of the Rivers APC caretaker executives led by Tony Okocha.
Respondents in the suit include national leaders of the APC, the seven-man Caretaker Committee of the party in Rivers State, the Inspector General of Police, the Nigerian Police Force and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The suit was filed by Sam Etetegwung and other elected members of dissolved APC EXCO in Rivers State.
The plaintiffs, through their counsel, Collins Dike, had secured an ex parte order to serve the originating summons and other processes on the defendants, especially the first and second defendants, through substituted means.
When the matter came up on Thursday, Presiding Judge, Justice C. N Wali, adjourned to March 13th for hearing of the substantive suit.
Speaking to journalists outside the courtroom, counsel to the dissolved APC Rivers EXCO, Dike said the dissolution was illegal.
“We are saying that no section of the Constitution of the All Progressives Congress empowers them to do that.
“No section of the Electoral Act 2022 allows them to do that. We are saying that what they did is standing on no legs as it were, and that’s why we are in court.
“We are asking the court to set aside the purported dissolution being that it is baseless in law, and continue to recognize the Chief Emeka Beke-led EXCO as the proper EXCO which even as we speak now, is the proper EXCO of the APC,” he said.