Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the nomination of chairmanship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2025 local government elections. The suit, filed by three aggrieved PDP members, sought to disqualify the list of candidates submitted by the factional chairman of the party, Aaron Chukwuemeka, who is aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. The ruling effectively upholds the victory of the PDP candidates in three key local government areas: Port Harcourt City, Obio-Akpor, and Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni.
The claimants, Enyi Uchechukwu, Wisdom Kalio, and Uche Amadi, had approached the court seeking a determination on whether the Chukwuemeka-led state executive committee of the PDP had the legal authority to submit candidates to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for the August 30, 2025, council elections. They argued that the congresses that produced Chukwuemeka’s leadership had been nullified by a previous court judgment, rendering him incompetent to act on behalf of the party.
However, in his judgment delivered on June 3, 2026, Justice Stephen Jumbo dismissed the suit for lack of jurisdiction. He ruled that the claimants lacked the legal standing to file the matter and described their request as a pre-election issue that was statute-barred, having been filed way past the legally permitted deadline. The judge also noted that the claimants failed to seek the court’s interpretation of the legal effects of the judgment nullifying the Chukwuemeka-led executive committee.
Upholding all the preliminary objections raised by the defendants, Justice Jumbo struck out the case in its entirety. The court further ordered the three claimants to pay N10 million in costs to the defendants. The ruling comes as a major boost to the Wike-led faction of the PDP in Rivers State, which has been locked in a protracted political battle with the camp of Governor Siminalayi Fubara over control of the party’s structure and the state’s political space.
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