In what can be described as a big blow to the momentum of the Labour Party, a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has sacked three National Assembly candidates in Rivers state.

The candidates are for Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt City Local Government constituencies.

ThisDay reports that the Peoples Democratic Party in the state had dragged the Labour Party to court for allegedly not complying with the new electoral act in their emergence as candidates.

The PDP had asked the court to nullify the primary in which they were elected and direct the Independent National Electoral Commission to disqualify the candidates.

The presiding judge, Justice Stephen Daylop-Pam, in his judgment agreed with the originating summon of the PDP that challenged the competence of the Labour Party to nominate candidates in the primary election that INEC did not monitor.

Daylop-Pam also ruled that the PDP proved that INEC did not monitor the primary election of the affected constituencies and ordered the electoral umpire not to recognise the affected candidates of the Labour Party for the 2023 general election.