Rivers Local Government Election Must Go On, Court Rules

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

An attempt to halt the conduct of the Rivers State Local Government Area election  scheduled for August 30, 2025, was on Thursday August 28, 2025, failed following the dismissal of a motion filed by an aggrieved  citizen.

The Source reports that the Rivers state Independent Electoral Commission RSIEC had fixed the Saturday August 30 date for the conduct of polls to elect Council Officials after the nullification, by the Supreme Court of an earlier exercise held on October 5, 2024.

However, the planned election has been greeted by a plethora of criticisms, and some political parties have already signified their  boycott of the polls which not a few have dubbed “illegal and unconstitutional”.

Ruling on the motion filed by a Port Harcourt based legal practitioner, Williams Abayomi-Stanley, challenging the validity and propriety of the planned election, Justice Stephen Jumbo of the Rivers State High Court, while dismissing the application, said that the exercise will go ahead as scheduled.

However, while dismissing the ex-parte motion to halt the polls, the presiding judge granted the applicant’s request for a substituted service of the motion on notice to the parties in the case .

Justice Jumbo held that the applicant’s motion to stop the planned election lack merit, and, therefore, cannot be granted.

He adjourned proceedings to September 10, 2025 ,for the commencement of hearing on the substantive suit.

The applicant in the motion on notice is challenging the process leading up to the said Local Council polls, including the appointment and constitution of the Chairman and members of the RSIEC by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ,and the National Assembly.

The claimant is praying the Court to determine if by virtue of the provisions of the 1999  Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the President has the power to appoint persons into the RSIEC.

In another suit filed by a former member of the APC House Of Assembly candidate, Chima Nnokam and four others at the State High Court ,the claimants, among other things, are seeking an order of the Court, to declare  the Local Council polls illegal and unconstitutional.

They are also contending that going by the provisions of all relevant extant laws, the appointment and constitution of the membership of the State’s Electoral Commission by persons other than the duly elected officials of Rivers State (Governor and Members of the State’s House of Assembly) is illegal null and void.

The applicants are also  seeking an  order of the court , recognizing the sacked Justice Adolphus Enebli-led RSIEC as the legitimate Electoral body pending the end of its tenure.