The internal crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State has taken a legal turn, following a suit filed by party stakeholders challenging the nomination of candidates for the last local government elections.
The PDP emerged victorious in three key local government areas—Port Harcourt City, Obio-Akpor and Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni councils—widely regarded as politically strategic in the state.
However, the legitimacy of the party’s candidates in the polls has now been questioned in court.
Three PDP stakeholders, Enyi Uchechukwu, Wisdom Kalio, and Uche Amadi, have dragged the party’s factional state chairman, Aaron Chukwuemeka, alongside the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), the PDP, and the Rivers State Government before the Rivers State High Court.
In an originating summons, the claimants asked the court to determine whether Chukwuemeka, whose emergence followed congresses allegedly nullified by a subsisting court judgment, possessed the legal authority to submit a list of candidates to RSIEC for the local government elections held on August 30, 2025.
They contended that the congress which produced Chukwuemeka had earlier been set aside by the Rivers State High Court, thereby rendering any actions taken by him, including the submission of candidates’ names, invalid.
Among other reliefs, the claimants sought a declaration on whether the PDP validly presented candidates through Chukwuemeka for the elections, and whether those candidates were qualified to participate in the polls.
They further urged the court to declare the PDP ward, local government, and state congresses conducted on July 27 and August 10, 2024, null and void, insisting that Chukwuemeka, as a product of the nullified congresses, lacked the capacity to conduct primaries or forward any list of candidates for elective offices.
The stakeholders also prayed for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants and their agents from further interference in the party’s internal affairs relating to the nomination and presentation of candidates for elections.
At the hearing, counsel to the claimants, Glory Chizim-Chinda, applied for substituted service on the second and third defendants.
The presiding judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo, granted the application and ordered that court processes be served at the PDP state secretariat along Aba Road.
Justice Jumbo adjourned the matter to February 9, 2026, for an application for joinder, and directed that the processes be served on the chairmen, their deputies, and councillors of Port Harcourt City, Obio-Akpor, and Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni local government areas.
