The crisis rocking the Delta State chapter of the All Progressives Congress took a dramatic twist on Monday as the Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, the state capital, sacked the Jones Erue-led state executive of the party.
The two-hour judgement delivered by the presiding judge, Justice Toyin Adegoke, also affected the ward and local government executives of the party under the Erue-led state executive.
The court declared the plaintiff, Cyril Ogodo, as the authentic chairman of the APC in the state.
In a suit number FA/ASA/CS/76/2018, the plaintiffs had sought 13 reliefs including the declaration of the Ogodo-led executive committee as the authentic state executive of the APC.
They also prayed the court to declare as null, void and of no effect any and every action purportedly taken, initiated or carried out by the first defendant, Jones Erue as chairman of the APC and the second defendant, the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, in Delta State.
The plaintiffs further prayed the court to declare the candidates that emerged from the primaries conducted by the Ogodo-led executive as the authentic APC candidates for the 2019 general elections.
The court, in the judgement, granted all the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs.
But counsel for the defendants, Dr Okubor Nwachukwu, who said the judgement would be challenged at the Court of Appeal, expressed confidence that it would be upturned at the appellate court.
But the counsel for the plaintiffs, Roland Ekpe, said the judgement did not fall short of his expectations, noting that by implication, the nomination of candidates who flew the flag of the party in the 2019 general elections had been voided having emerged from the primaries conducted by the Erue-led executive.
However, a brother to the APC governorship candidate, Mr Turner Ogboru, who was in the court, urged Ogodo and his group not to rejoice yet because the judgement could not stand legal scrutiny at the Court of Appeal.
Ogboru argued that the court was wrong to have nullified the primaries conducted by the APC National Working Committee.
