The Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has dismissed a suit instituted by three members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to invalidate the emergence of the party’s candidates who won chairmanship positions in three Local Government Areas during the last council elections.
The suit targeted the chairmen of Port Harcourt City, Obio-Akpor and Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Areas, namely Allwell Ihunda, Dr. Gift Worlu and Chukwu Ogbodo, respectively.
The claimants, Enyi Uchechukwu, Wisdom Kalio and Uche Amadi, had approached the court challenging the validity of the nomination process that produced the candidates for the August 2025 local government elections.
Joined as defendants in the suit were the Rivers State Chairman of the PDP, Aaron Chukwuemeka, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), the Rivers State Government, the affected chairmen, their deputies and councillors elected under the platform of the Chukwuemeka-led state executive committee.
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In their originating summons, the plaintiffs sought, among other reliefs, a determination of whether the Chukwuemeka-led PDP executive committee had the legal authority to submit candidates’ names to RSIEC following an earlier court judgment that questioned its emergence.
Delivering judgment, Justice Stephen Jumbo upheld the preliminary objections raised by the defendants and struck out the suit.
The court held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter and further ruled that the claimants did not possess the necessary legal standing to institute the action.
Justice Jumbo observed that the plaintiffs failed to seek a judicial interpretation of the earlier judgment delivered against the Chukwuemeka-led executive committee and instead framed their case in a manner that amounted to a pre-election dispute.
According to the court, the nature of the reliefs sought placed the matter within the category of pre-election cases, making the action statute-barred.
The judge consequently dismissed the suit in its entirety.
In addition, the court awarded costs of ₦10 million against the plaintiffs in favour of all the defendants involved in the matter.
The judgment effectively preserves the positions of the three council chairmen and other elected officials produced through the PDP structure that conducted the nomination process ahead of the 2025 local government elections.
