Court summons council chairmen, vices, councillors over election wins

From Tony John, Port Harcourt

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has summoned the chairmen of Obio/Akpor, Port Harcourt City, and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government areas, their vice chairmen and councillors to show why their election should not be nullified.

Justice Stephen Jumbo gave the order after joining the chairman of Obio/Akpor LGA, Gift Worlu, and 59 others as a second set of respondents in a suit filed by three stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State.

Justice Jumbo, before adjourning till March 17, 2026, for hearing, granted an application for substituted service by the claimants’ counsel, Glory Chizim-Chinda, directing him to serve the process on the defendants at the state secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party on Aba Road.

The claimants, Enyi Uchechukwu, Wisdom Kalio and Uche Amadi, are in court against the state factional chairman of the PDP, Aaron Chukwuemeka, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), the PDP and the government of Rivers State over the nomination of PDP chairmen, their vices and councillors for the last council elections in the state.

The claimants, in an originating summons, are asking the court to determine whether the Aaron Chukwuemeka-led state executive, whose congresses that brought them to office had been nullified by the court, can validly submit a list of candidates to RSIEC for the last LGA elections by virtue of the judgment of the High Court.

The claimants also want the court to determine, among other reliefs, whether the Peoples Democratic Party presented a valid list of candidates to RSIEC through Aaron Chukwuemeka, to enable the candidates to participate in the August 30, 2025, council elections.

They want a declaration that the Peoples Democratic Party’s ward, local government area, and state elective congresses conducted on July 27, 2024, and August 10, 2024, were a nullity and that, having been set aside by the Rivers State High Court and with Aaron Chukwuemeka being a product of the said nullified congresses, he lacked the competence or capacity to conduct any of the party’s primaries and/or to submit any list of candidates.

The claimants equally asked for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, by themselves, their privies, agents, assigns, and/or administrators, howsoever so named, from interfering and/or further interfering with the Peoples Democratic Party’s internal affairs with regard to the nomination and presentation of candidates for elective positions.