Elected ward officials under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State have been sworn in.
Chairman of the State Caretaker Committee, Barrister Isaac Ogbobula Thursday, September 2, 2021, performed the swearing in ceremony in Port Harcourt, the Rivers capital.
The new executives at the grassroots billed for the occasion at the State Party Secretariat along Woji Road in GRA were however diverted to the APC South South office due to weat her conditions.
Addressing the newly elected officials, Ogbobula reminded them of their role and enjoined them to be worthy ambassadors of the party at the grassroots.
He told the elected officials who had gathered for inauguration that much is expected from them, and assured them that the party which is on ground in the State would not rest until it has taken over the reins of power from the PDP.
The decision to swear in the elected officials of the party is no doubt unconnected with Wednesday’s Court of Appeal victory which has cleared certain obstacles.
Aggrieved supporters of Senator Magnus Abe have been up in arms against the enthronement of officials who would man the party’s grassroots administration or elect persons who would fly its flag in popular elections.
They allege that their interests are not accommodated and claim there are moves to edge them out by the Minister of Transportation and his supporters.
But their effort to rock the boat, it would appear, have been truncated by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, which set aside the ex parte motion issued by a Port Harcourt High Court.
Recall that the court which adjourned sine die however left an order directing parties in the suit before it to maintain status quo.
Many who have been monitoring events were shocked when Justice Opufa Ben-Whyte chose to travel that route after he had acknowledged that the court has become functus officio.
APC lawyers, according to what we have learnt, added additional grounds to pleas already before the Court of Appeal, shortly after the order to maintain status quo was given by Justice Opufa Ben-Whyte.
It was perhaps, a clever booby trap, an attempt to place an injunction through the back door, which could continue to hunt the All Progressives Congress.
Said a lawyer in Port Harcourt who did not want his name in print, “I admire the work that has been done by the APC legal team.
“If they had not taken steps to vacate the order issued by the judge on status quo, the order would still have been alive.”
The legal team is led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Tuduru Edeh SAN who hails from Rivers State.
The swearing in ceremony performed by Ogbobula signals the birth of a new dawn.
It has not been easy getting to this stage. Ogbobula has survived several legal battles and many attempts to impede his assignment.
Across the Rivers State, many party men and women as well as youths are in a jubilant mood.
Sympathisers of the APC have also taken to the social media since Wednesday to celebrate a significant step forward.
Our information is that many estactic party members, happy that the stiff opposition from Freedom House has been overcome, at least for now, stormed the venue of the inauguration.