The fate of the chairmen of three Local Government Areas in Rivers State will be decided on June 3, 2026, as the Rivers State High Court prepares to deliver judgment in a suit challenging the validity of their emergence.
The affected local government areas are Obio/Akpor, Port Harcourt City and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni.
The suit was instituted by three aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State against the factional state chairman of the party, Aaron Chukwuemeka, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, the PDP and the Rivers State Government.
Presiding judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo of the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, fixed the date for judgment after counsel representing the parties adopted their final written addresses on both the preliminary objections and the originating summons.
Although the Rivers State Government did not file any process or adopt any address in the matter, the court had earlier granted an application for extension of time filed by the plaintiffs.
The claimants, Enyi Uchechukwu, Wisdom Kalio and Uche Amadi, are asking the court to determine whether the Chukwuemeka-led state executive of the PDP, whose congresses were previously nullified by the court, had the legal authority to submit a list of candidates to RSIEC for the just-concluded local government elections.
They are also seeking the court’s interpretation on whether the PDP validly submitted candidates to RSIEC through the Chukwuemeka-led executive, thereby enabling the party’s candidates to participate in the August 30, 2025, local government elections.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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