The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt on Wednesday dismissed three appeals filed by a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State and upheld the October 10 judgment of the State High Court which declared the congresses of the party in the state void.

The Appeal Court also struck out two joinder applications filed by the factional chairman of the APC in the state, Mr Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, the governorship candidate of the party in Rivers, Mr. Tonye Cole and other elected candidates of same faction.

The faction, led by Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has however headed to the Supreme Court to challenge the judgments which has put the likelihood of APC fielding any candidate in the state in the 2019 elections in doubt.

The  Flag-Amachree faction loyal to Amaechi had gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment of the state High Court in the matter brought before it by Ibrahim Umar and 22 other aggrieved members of APC loyal to Senator Magnus Abe.

Delivering his judgment yesterday, Justice Yahaya said the appeal against the Justice Chinwendu Nwogu High Court judgment lacks merit, stressing that the application for joinder failed to observe the 14 days rules of appeal.

On the substantive appeal which bordered on Justice Nwogu’s judgment, the court ruled that the Flag-Amachree faction failed to seek leave of court before appealing against the judgment.

The appeal court also ruled that the judgment delivered at the lower court was a consent judgment, adding that Flag-Amachree’s faction should have done the needful legally before approaching the court.