Court nullifies PDP congresses in Rivers, sacks pro-Wike chairman

A Rivers State High Court has nullified the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ward, Local Government, and State Congresses conducted in the state in July 2024 by supporters of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

The court, presided over by Justice Stephen Jumbo, also declared null and void the positions that emerged from the state, LGA, and ward congresses.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Stephen Jumbo ruled that the ward, local government, and state congresses had no legal standing and were invalid from the onset.

Recall that the PDP congresses in Rivers State took place despite a subsisting court order stopping the process.

The development led to disagreements between the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), which gave the nod for the congresses, and the PDP Governors’ Forum, which, after their meeting in Enugu during the period, insisted that Governor Siminalayi Fubara must be accorded his right as the leader of the party in the state.

However, Wike and his faction went ahead and conducted the congresses, which produced Chukwuemeka Aaron, a loyalist to Wike, as the state party chairman, along with other executives.

Fubara and his supporters boycotted the congresses, and consequently, when the dispute between the NWC and the Governors’ Forum became insoluble, Fubara’s supporters left the PDP and decamped to the Action Peoples Party (APP), where they contested the local government elections, which took place on October 5, 2024.

Meanwhile, the G-60 federal lawmakers in the House of Representatives had described the congresses as merely a party with his friends, laughable, and a jamboree.
Spokesperson of the group, Ikenga Ugochinyere (PDP, Imo), noted that Wike merely held a party with his friends under the guise of a party congress.

Contacted, the Publicity Secretary of PDP in the state, Mr. Kenneth Yorwika, said the party was putting together its reactions to the purported court judgment at the time this story was filed.