Court nullifies Rivers PDP congresses

A Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Monday nullified the ward, local government, and state congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party conducted in 2024.

Justice Stephen Jumbo issued an interlocutory injunction restraining the executives who emerged from these congresses from functioning as officers of the PDP in the state.

The ruling followed a suit filed by two Port Harcourt-based lawyers, Edwin Woko and Love Otuonye, along with two other party members, against the PDP National Chairman, the State Chairman, Aaron Chukwuemeka, and nine others.

The applicants had prayed the court to nullify the congresses held on July 27, August 10, and August 31, 2024, alleging that they were conducted in “flagrant disobedience” to a court injunction issued on July 16, 2024.

The injunction had barred the PDP, its National Chairman, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and their agents from organising congresses pending the determination of the originating summons.

ADVERTISEMENT

The claimants argued that the congresses violated the court’s orders and requested an interlocutory injunction to: set aside the congresses held across 319 wards, 23 local government areas, and the state; and restrain Chukwuemeka and others from acting, representing, or parading themselves as members of the PDP state executive committee.

Others include to: declare themselves (the claimants) as the authentic and subsisting members of the PDP state executive committee; and direct the PDP and its national leadership to recognize and deal with them accordingly.

After hearing arguments from both sides, Justice Jumbo upheld the applicants’ prayers, nullifying the congresses and restraining Chukwuemeka and the other respondents from acting as executives of the party in the state.

“The court recognises the applicants as the authentic and subsisting members of the Rivers State executive committee of the PDP,” the ruling stated.