Rivers State Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Thursday dismissed an ex parte application seeking to stop the August 30 Local Government elections in the state.

The Presiding Judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo, in his ruling in a suit filed by a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Williams Abayomi-Stanley, against President Bola Tinubu, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, and its Chairman, said the application for motion ex-parte lacked merit and thereby dismissed it.

Justice Jumbo, however, granted a motion ex- parte seeking to serve the defendants through  substituted service,  but directed that the conduct of the August 30th LG elections should go ahead as scheduled and adjourned hearing of the suit  till September 10, 2025.

Speaking to newsmen after the court session, counsel to the claimant, Godsent Elewa, said his client was in court to seek for interpretation of a section of the RSIEC law and the 1999 Constitution of  of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended as to whether  the president has the powers to appoint a Chairman and members of the commission to conduct local LG polls in the state.

Elewa, however, welcomed the ruling of the court, which granted one leg  of his motions and expressed his readiness to pursue the process  on the next adjourned date.

He stated, “My client, Williams Stanley-Abayomi, is a Constitutional lawyer and an indigene of Rivers State from Emuoha LGA.

The applicant basically is in court to seek the interpretations of some Sections, particularly section 2 sub 1 and section 3 sub 1 of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission Law number 12, 2018 and Sections 197, 198 and 200 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as altered.”

He, however, said he has nothing against the Court ruling, especially as one of the prayers of his client was granted.

“We have two motions ex -parte, the first was the motion ex -parte for an interim injunction to restrain the conduct of the August 30 local government elections. Unfortunately, the Court dismissed that motion on the ground that it lacked merit and adjourned to the 10th of September for all the parties to be served with our substantive processes and for us to argue the main application.

“The second application  was an order for substituted service to be effected on the first and the second defendants, which are President Bola Tinubu and the Attorney-General of the Federation.