Court strikes out case challenging Rivers LGA elections

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has thrown out a suit filed by a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Williams Stanley, challenging the just-concluded local government elections. The lawyer filed the suit against President Bola Tinubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Sole Administrator, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), and its chairman.

Stanley in the suit challenged the legality of the appointments of the state’s Sole Administrator by President Bola Tinubu and the administrator’s nominations of the chairman and members of RSIEC to conduct the August 30th Local Government Council election. The Presiding judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo, in his ruling on the issue of locus standi of the claimant and jurisdiction of the court, held that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

He pointed out that, based on the constitution, only the Supreme Court has the exclusive jurisdiction to hear such suits during emergency rule. Jumbo also held that the claimant lacked the locus standi to institute the suit against the defendants. He said that the claimant was not able to show personal interest above public interest and as well as his civil rights and obligations that had been violated by the actions of the defendants.

The judge also ruled that the claimant failed to show sufficient proof of injury or threat to injury or hardship he would suffer if his questions as contained in his originating summons were answered. Jumbo insisted that the interest the claimant sought to protect was not his personal interest but that of the governor of the state, a position he was not holding at the moment. On the conduct of the August 30th local government election, Justice Jumbo declared that the election was constitutional and legitimate.

The judge, who did not award any costs against the claimant, noted that the conduct of the LGA election was not done by the governor or sole administrator, but the RSIEC. Reacting to the judgment, the lawyer to the claimant, Godsent Elewa, revealed some of the grounds he would encourage his client to appeal the ruling of the high court. But the lawyer for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the fifth defendant in the suit, Monday John-Otokwala, said the judgment of the court represented the position of the law.

Source: https://thenationonlineng.net/court-strikes-out-case-challenging-rivers-lga-elections/

Date: 15Sep25