A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, has disqualified three National Assembly candidates of Labour Party (LP) in Rivers State.
The candidates disqualified include Obio/Akpor, Port Harcourt City 1 and Port Harcourt City 2 Federal constituencies.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State had dragged the LP to court, alleging that the party did not comply with the new Electoral Act in their selection of candidates.
PDP asked the court to void the primary in which the trio were elected and direct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify the candidates.
The presiding Judge, Justice Stephen Daylop-Pam, in his judgment, concurred with the originating summon of the PDP that challenged the competence of the Labour Party to nominate candidates in the primary election in which INEC did not monitor.
Daylop-Pam ruled that PDP proved that INEC did not monitor the primary election of the affected constituencies. He therefore, ordered INEC not to recognise the affected candidates for the 2023 general election.
Meanwhile, the counsel for the Labour Party and the three candidates, Uche Ollewunne, said he will advise his clients to appeal the judgment.