A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has adjourned hearing of a suit filed by a former APC candidate in the 2015 House of Assembly election in Port Harcourt Constituency 3, Chima Nnokam, and four others, to the 15th of October 2025.

Nnokam, in the suit, is urging the court to declare the August 30 scheduled local government election proceedings as unconstitutional.

The claimants, in their originating summons against the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, Attorney General of Rivers State, and two financial institutions, are seeking declarations that the new RSIEC chairman and members were unlawfully appointed and therefore are not competent to conduct the scheduled election.

They are also seeking the declaration that the commission’s planned local government elections are unlawful and liable to be set aside due to non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

They further asked the court to restrain the two financial institutions from disbursing funds belonging to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, urging the court to set aside all actions taken by the RSIEC chairman, Mr. Michael Odey, including the revised timetable for the 2025 local government council election.

The claimants, in their reliefs, also sought a consequential order of injunction restraining the defendants from parading themselves as members and chairman of RSIEC.

During the court hearing, counsel for the first to ninth defendants from Afe Babalola’s Chambers appeared but claimed their office was not fully briefed and lacked a copy of the processes.

Meanwhile, counsel for the applicant, Barr. Cindy Babalola, had earlier told the court that despite serving other defendants with court processes, none had responded.

However, the court initially suggested resuming the case on September 12, but the defendants’ counsel requested more time to respond to the processes, leading to the presiding judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo, adjourning the hearing to October 15.

Speaking to newsmen outside the courtroom, counsel to the applicant, Babalola, explained: “The matter of Chief Nnokam against RSIEC came up today. Before now, we have served other defendants with our processes, but we have not received any response from them. The matter came up for hearing today, but unfortunately none of the defendants had served us with a response.
“So today in court, counsel came for the first to ninth defendants from Afe Babalola’s Chambers, and he said his office has not been fully briefed and they do not have a copy of the process. I had to oblige him with the only copy I had, and the court asked if we can come back on Friday, being the 12th of September. But he said he needs sufficient time to be able to respond to our processes, so the matter was adjourned to the 15th of October 2025 for hearing of the originating summons.”