The reinstated Emeka Beke-led executive of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has declared all candidate nominations from the party’s just-concluded primaries null and void.
The nullified primaries had notably produced House of Representatives member Kingsley Chinda, a close ally of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike, as the party’s governorship candidate following the withdrawal of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Several other Wike loyalists had also emerged as APC flagbearers for the 2027 National and State Assembly elections.
The development follows a Friday ruling by Justice Elfreida Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu of the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt. The appellate court upheld a Rivers State High Court decision that nullified the congresses producing Chief Tony Okocha, Wike’s chief ally in the state, as the party’s chairman.
Reacting to the judgement in a statement on Monday, Darlington Nwauju, the spokesperson for the reinstated Beke faction, declared that all decisions, nominations, and documentations made under the Okocha-led faction between December 20, 2024, and May 29, 2026, are illegal and have no effect.
Nwauju argued that the Tony Okocha faction had no legal right to represent the party or conduct primaries, accusing them of trying to turn the Rivers APC into an exclusive club where founding members and key stakeholders were unfairly disqualified for frivolous reasons.
“All nominations, representations, communications, documentations including decisions reached on behalf of the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress between December 20, 2024, to Friday, May 29, 2026, with the seal of the illegal executives, is illegal, null, void and of no effect,” Nwauju stated.
The Beke faction has now urged the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC to immediately review and wipe out all records of the primaries conducted by the Okocha faction to avoid a repeat of the “Zamfara experience,” where the party lost its electoral victories due to invalid primaries.
Additionally, the faction called on the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) to withdraw the certificates of return issued to local government chairmen and councilors from the Okocha faction who won the August 2025 local government elections, demanding they be handed over to candidates originally submitted by the legally recognized Emeka Beke executive.