Wike suffers setback as court sacks Rivers PDP chairperson, nullifies party congresses

A State High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has nullified the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) congresses held last year, handing a major setback to former Governor Nyesom Wike’s quest to control the party structure in the state.

Punch newspaper reported that the judge, Stephen Jumbo, gave an order on Monday restraining the executives who emerged from the congresses from functioning as officers of the party in the state.

The congress has been the subject of a legal tussle between Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s allies and his predecessor, Mr Wike, the FCT minister.

Messrs Fubara and Wike are at loggerheads over the control of the political structure in the oil-rich state.

Legal tussle

A State High Court in Rivers had barred the PDP from conducting the Ward, Local Governments and State Congresses of the party in the state.

However, a Federal High Court vacated the injunction and directed the party to proceed with the exercise.

Days before the exercise, another high court in the state again restrained the PDP, its national chairperson, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and their agents from organising state congresses pending the matter’s determination.

Notwithstanding the last court injunction, the party went ahead with the exercise, leading to the emergence of Mr Wike’s allies as executive of the PDP at the Ward, Local Governments and the state chapter of the party.

Mr Fubara’s allies boycotted the exercise, citing the court order.

Dissatisfied with the conduct of the congresses, two Port Harcourt-based lawyers, Edwin Woko and Love Otuonye, along with other party members, filed a suit against the PDP national chairperson, the State Chairperson, Aaron Chukwuemeka, who emerged from the party’s state congress, and nine others.

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

According to Punch newspaper, the applicants argued that the congresses violated the court’s order. They urged that the congresses held across 319 wards, 23 local government areas, and the state be set aside and further prayed the court to restrain Mr Chukwuemeka and others from functioning or parading themselves as executive members of the party in the state.

The applicants further prayed the court to declare them (applicants) as the authentic and subsisting members of the PDP state executive committee and direct the PDP and its national leadership to recognise and deal with them accordingly.

After hearing submissions from both sides, the court granted the relief of the applicants: nullified the party’s state congresses and restrained Mr Chukwuemeka and other respondents from functioning 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, according to the Punch newspaper.

What the ruling means

The court ruling, though temporary, is a severe political blow to the FCT minister who controls the party structure in the state, an “anomaly” the PDP Governors Forum aimed to correct.

The forum argued that Mr Fubara, as governor, is the leader of the party in Rivers State and should, therefore, control its structure. The PDP governors are demanding that Mr Fubara be recognised as the leader of the party in the state by the party’s national leadership.

The latest court ruling is the second time the political tide has turned in favour of Mr Fubara after the governor braved the odds to conduct local government elections last year and swore in his allies as chairpersons and councillors in all the 23 local government areas in the state, a move that has given him control of the political structure at the grassroots, the focal point of his political battle with his predecessor.