AfriPulse
A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has ruled that the August 30, 2025, local government election in the state was not only constitutional but legitimate.
The Presiding judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo, also threw away the suit filed by a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Williams Stanley, challenging the just-concluded local government elections.
Stanley had 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.
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But 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.
Tinubu seeks partnership with Church to tackle poverty NASENI’s DELTA-2 Programme and the Push for Research Results Commercialization He stated that, based on the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, only the Supreme Court has the exclusive jurisdiction to hear such suits during emergency rule.
He also held that the claimant lacked the locus standi to institute the suit against the defendants, because he was not able to show personal interest above public interest, 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 unanswered.
Justice 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.
The judge, who did not award any costs against the claimant, stated that the conduct of the local government election was not done by the governor or sole administrator, but by the RSIEC.
Source: DailyTrust | Read the Full Story…
