Court shocks 3 PDP members over LG elections in Rivers State
They couldn’t believe their eyes after State High Court gave its verdict in Port Harcourt, Rivers State yesterday.
Enyi Uchechukwu, Wisdom Kalio, and Uche Amadi had approached the court last year to challenge the outcomes of the 2025 council elections in the riverine state.
They sued the state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chukwuemeka Aaron, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, and the Rivers State Government. Also, the council chairmen, vice chairmen, and councillors of Obio-Akpor, Port Harcourt City, and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Areas there aggrieved party men included in their suit.
The three were asking the court to decide whether or not Chukwuemeka Aaron-led state executive has authority to submit candidates’ lists to RSIEC for the August 2025 local government elections.
But Justice Stephen Jumbo was brutal in delivering judgement on Tuesday. First, he told the plaintiffs that his court lacked the jurisdictions to entertain their matter. Also, he said they don’t have legal standing to file such a suit in the first place.
Apart from these, the plaintiffs were not seeking for interpretation of previous court rulings but, instead, were raising issues related to pre-election matter, which had already exceeded the time allowed by law, Justice Jumbo said.
Then, the court, after listening to the objections raised by the defendants, dismissed the case. But it didn’t end there. Justice Jumbo ordered the plaintiffs to pay ₦10 million as a cost to the defendants.