The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has expressed confidence that the party would take part in the 2023 election in the state.
The Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, had on November 24 disqualified Cole from the governorship race in the state over his dual citizenship status and that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC did not monitor the congress that threw him up as flagbearer.
Addressing journalists at the launch of the “office of the citizen” by #FixPolitics, a civil society organisation (CSO) in Lagos, the guber candidate said the party was ready to appeal the matter at Supreme Court.
Cole said: “It is two different things. In 2019, there was an internal crisis in the APC, which made it very easy for the court to leave us out of the ballot. This time around, it is totally different.
“What I am going to say is that we are going to be on the ballot. Nothing is going to stop us.
“The judgment is from a lower court and we are in the appeal court. All the issues will end up at the Supreme Court. So, we are going to appeal court and to the Supreme Court. At that point, it will all be done and settled.
“We trust the judiciary that they will do the right thing. This is about competition and it is about making sure everyone gets to the ballot so that they can compete with the best that they have.
“What we bring to the table this time around, we have people that are afraid of our competition, so they won’t allow us to be on the ballot. We will be on the ballot, compete, and we will win.”
Recall that in the 2019 elections, INEC excluded APC from the polls after a court ruling nullified the primaries conducted by factions of the party.
