Breaking News: Rivers State PDP Elect Excos Across 319 Wards in 23 LGA

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State has held her Congress in all 319 wards of the 23 local government areas, despite two court orders stopping the exercise. The first court order was issued by Justice Charles Wali of the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt, while the second order was given by Justice Sobere Biambo, also of the Rivers State High Court.

The court orders were in response to suits filed by PDP members from the various wards in the state’s 23 local government areas. The orders specifically restrained the PDP, its national chairman, national financial secretary, and national organizing secretary from conducting ward, local government, and state congresses in Rivers State.

Justice Wali’s order also directed the Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Director-General of the Department of State Services, and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps to enforce the order by preventing the PDP from organizing or carrying out the congresses.

Despite these court orders, the PDP is going ahead with the ward congresses. Some PDP members have been observed collecting materials for the congress at the party’s secretariat along Aba Road in Port Harcourt.

The PDP’s decision to defy the court orders has been met with criticism from some quarters. Chief Tony C Okocha, Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, expressed his disappointment, saying, “The APC Rivers State is glad to know that the PDP congresses are holding in the 319 wards in 23 local government areas of Rivers State today. We pray that the congresses will produce the best fitted for the job.”

The Rivers State High Court has ordered that the motion on notice and the originating summons, including the order, be served on the respondents through substituted means, specifically by publication in any widely read national newspapers in Rivers.

The latest court order is among several others in the protracted political battle between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who is the FCT minister. The fight between the two estranged allies over the control of the political structure in the oil-rich state has split the state’s legislature into two factions and has disrupted governance in the state.