Appeal Court reserves judgement in appeals over Rivers crisis 

A special panel of the Court of Appeal on Thursday reserved judgement in the consolidated appeals challenging the judgement of Justice Peter Lifu of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court bordering on the political crisis in Rivers State.

A three-member panel led by Justice Otisi took the decision after counsel to parties of the appeals adopted their briefs for and against the appeals.

Justice Otisi announced that a date for the judgement would be communicated to parties to the appeals.

In one of his Judgments now on appeal,  barred the Independent National Electoral Commission from releasing the voters’ register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission for the upcoming local government elections scheduled for 5 October 2024.

His Judgement was in respect of a suit filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.
In his judgement, Justice Lifu criticised RSIEC for setting 5 October as the election date without adhering to the relevant laws governing the conduct of the election.

He ruled that the Rivers State electoral body violated the provisions of the local government election law by failing to publish the mandatory 90-day notice before fixing the election date.

The judge further held that the updating and revision of the voters’ register should have been completed before a legally valid election date could be set. He consequently ordered INEC not to release the certified voters’ register to RSIEC until all legal requirements had been met.

The judgement triggered multiple appeals contesting the findings and conclusion of the trial court.

The consolidated appeals that arose from Justice Lifu’s judgement included appeals numbers CA/ABJ/CV/1151/2024 between the Social Democratic Party against the APC and three others; CA/ABJ/CV/1152/2024; between Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) against APC and four others; CA/ABJ/CV/1153/2024 between Attorney General of Rivers State against APC.

It was the decision of the court that other appeals relating to the subject matter shall abide by the judgment in CA/ABJ/CV/1152/2024; between Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) against APC and four others.

Counsel who participated in the consolidated appeals were Yusuf Ali SAN who appeared for the appellant in CA/ABJ/CV/1152/2024; between Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) against APC and four others; Joseph Daudu SAN and Chief Chris Uche SAN for the 3rd respondent.

Meanwhile, the panel has further adjourned some appeals to January 23, 2025 for hearing.

Some of the adjourned appeals by the panel are CA/ABJ/CV/122mi/2024 between the Accountant General of Rivers State against the Rivers State House of Assembly; CA/ABJ/1208/2024 between Action Peoples Party (APP) against INEC and 28 others; CA/ABJ/CV/1142/2024 between Alhaji Bala Mohammed against Aaron Chukwuemeka; CA/ABJ/CV/1182/2024 between Peter Ohochukwu against APC, RSIEC and others.

In another suit, Justice Peter Lifu had restrained the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from dissolving the recently elected executives of the party in Rivers State.

Justice Lifu made the order while delivering ruling in an exparte application brought by some members of the Rivers State chapter of the PDP, said to be loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike.

Specifically, the court restrained the PDP Governors Forum, National Working Committee (NWC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party from tampering with or dissolving the executive of the PDP from the wards up to the state chapter of the party in Rivers State.

Besides, the defendants, by the court’s ruling, are not to constitute any interim committee to replace the officers of the party at the state, local governments and ward levels.

In an enrolled order,  Justice Lifu warned that on no ground should the tenure of the Rivers PDP executive committees at the state, local governments and the wards be truncated by the defendants.

Besides, the judge also ordered that the defendants must not in any way allow or permit any other group or persons to perform the duties and functions of the PDP state, local governments and ward officers elected between July 27 and August 31, 2024.

The plaintiffs in the ex-parte application marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1396/2024, are Aaron Chukwuemeka, Oye Fubara Igenewari, and ThankGod Bekee, who sued on behalf of themselves and state, local governments, and ward executive committees respectfully.

The defendants are PDP, Umar Damagun, Samuel Anyanwu, Umar Bature, NWC, NEC, BoT, INEC, and Alhaji Bala Mohammed of Governors Forum as the first to ninth defendants.

In the ex-parte motion argued on their behalf by Joshua Musa (SAN), the plaintiffs alleged that the defendants were making clandestine moves to dissolve the legally constituted state, local governments, and ward executive committees of PDP in Rivers State.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has constituted a special three-member panel to handle political cases from Rivers State, which begins sitting on Thursday, November 14.

This move follows the escalating legal tussles stemming from a rift between Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

The feud has led to a surge of legal cases from the state, creating factions among political actors and resulting in conflicting judgments from courts of similar authority an issue that has drawn criticism from judiciary stakeholders and the public.

To streamline the resolution of these disputes, Court of Appeal President Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem appointed a special panel to oversee all appeals related to the political crisis in Rivers.