Bearing placards as they marched around the secretariat on Friday, they asked the party to obey the order of the High Court that nullified the primary elections that produced Tonye Cole as the party's governorship candidate in the state.
Aggrieved aspirants and protesters from Rivers State, believed to be loyalists of Senator Magnus Abe, have besieged the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja and blocked the gates of the building.
Bearing placards as they marched around the secretariat on Friday, they asked the party to obey the order of the High Court that nullified the primary elections that produced Tonye Cole as the party's governorship candidate in the state.
A Rivers State High Court had sacked the state executive members of the party loyal to Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation.
The protesters are asking the party to recognise Magnus Abe as the governorship candidate in the 2019 general election.
Armed policemen were on ground to control the protesters.
Addressing journalists during the protest, one of the aspirants, Augustine Onyekachi Nwokocha, said the protest was aimed at drawing the attention of the party to the court order that invalidated the indirect primaries conducted in the state. He added that the party must recognise the direct primary which the court declared as legitimate and valid.
His words: "I am one of the candidates that emerged in the direct primaries conducted in Rivers State. I am aspiring to be the Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria representing Rivers West Senatorial District. We the people have agreed among ourselves that we want to test popularity among the people. We do not believe in this delegates election because there are no delegates in Rivers State.
"Sometime ago, there was court order in Rivers State that nullified the election that brought in all the executives from the ward to the state level. Three times, there have been efforts to vacate it. The Court of Appeal refused to vacate it; that order was valid. Then there was a judgement again on Wednesday that the list of the delegates is null and void and there was no primary in Rivers State.
"Unfortunately, we have not seen recognition in Rivers State that the direct primaries that were carried out in the state is the right thing that should be recognised. We have come to tell the party that we are democrats and we believe in the direct primaries. Anybody who is popular in Rivers State should come and show his popularity among the people. Don't stay in your house and write the list of people we don't know. You must recognise those elected by the people, not those who are selected by one man. It will no longer happen in Rivers State."
He urged the party leadership not to make the state like that of Zamfara, where the party would suffer a "double jeopardy" as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted that the APC cannot field candidates for 2019 elections in the state. The protesters were later dispersed after they registered their grievances.
A Rivers State High Court had sacked the state executives of the party loyal to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, following a law suit filed by the Magnus Abe-led group to challenge the legality of the indirect prinaries.