A Rivers State Excessive Courtroom sitting in Port Harcourt has adjourned listening to till October 8, 2025, to begin accelerated listening to on a swimsuit regarding the legitimacy of the latest native council election within the state.
The swimsuit was filed by native authorities chairmanship candidates of the Emeka Beke-led All Progressives Congress, APC, faction, in opposition to the newly elected council chairmen produced by the social gathering’s camp led by Tony Okocha.
The Rivers State Unbiased Electoral Fee, RSIEC, can be a respondent within the swimsuit.
The APC chairmanship candidate for Bonny LGA, Dagogo Fubara, and 19 others are in court docket looking for interpretation on who’s the professional state chairman of the social gathering, between Beke and Okocha, following a judgment of the Rivers State Excessive Courtroom presided over by Justice Sika Aprioku.
The plaintiffs are additionally asking the court docket to nullify the first election performed by the Okocha-led APC and the candidates who emerged from it, who’ve already been declared winners in 20 LGAs throughout the state.
The APC chairmanship candidates from the Beke faction are praying the court docket to direct RSIEC to declare them the genuine winners of the August 30, 2025, council elections in Rivers State.
DAILY POST experiences that when the matter got here up for listening to on Monday, the court docket famous the absence of counsel for RSIEC.
All different events current utilized for an adjournment, and presiding decide Justice Stephen Jumbo adjourned the case till October 8 for accelerated listening to.
DAILY POST recollects that the Beke faction of the APC had written to RSIEC, urging the Fee to not acknowledge any particular person who didn’t emerge from primaries performed beneath his management, insisting that he stays the genuine state chairman of the social gathering primarily based on the legislation.
RSIEC, in its response, maintained that it neither monitored the primaries performed by the Beke-led APC nor acknowledged their candidates.
It could be recalled that on August 12, 2024, a Rivers State Excessive Courtroom in Port Harcourt had dismissed the seven-member Caretaker Committee of the APC in Rivers State, led by Okocha, which was appointed by the Nationwide Working Committee, NWC, of the social gathering.
Justice Aprioku, ruling in a swimsuit filed by Sam Sam Etetegwung, Banarth Ezemoye, Ezekiel Ubom, and others on behalf of the democratically elected APC government within the state, reinstated the manager led by Beke because the professional management of the social gathering in Rivers State.
The court docket issued a perpetual injunction in opposition to the Okocha-led caretaker committee, prohibiting them from interfering with the Beke-led government till the top of their four-year time period.
Moreover, the court docket restrained the APC’s nationwide management from recognizing the Okocha-led committee and directed them to acknowledge the Beke-led government because the social gathering’s genuine management till their time period expires.
The court docket additionally criticized the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee, INEC, for supporting the dissolution of the democratically elected APC executives and warned that leaders of political events should adhere to their very own constitutions and keep away from performing recklessly.
Justice Aprioku discovered that the APC Nationwide Working Committee didn’t justify their actions, which have been deemed in violation of each the social gathering’s and Nigeria’s constitutions.
Because of this, the court docket awarded N300,000 in prices in favour of the APC government led by Beke.
The decide dismissed preliminary objections raised by the defendants concerning the justification and the applying for joinder by further events.
Justice Aprioku dominated that the appointment of the seven-member caretaker committee led by Okocha was null and void, with no authorized standing, asserting that the committee members had no authorized existence.
