A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has adjourned till October 8, 2025, to commence accelerated hearing on a suit concerning the legitimacy of the recent local council election in the state.
The suit was filed by local council chairmanship candidates of the Emeka Beke-led All Progressives Congress (APC) faction against the newly elected council chairmen produced by the party’s camp led by Tony Okocha.
The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) is also a respondent in the suit. The APC chairmanship candidate for Bonny Local Council, Dagogo Fubara, and 19 others are in court seeking interpretation on who is the legitimate state chairman of the party between Beke and Okocha, following a judgment of the Rivers State High Court presided over by Justice Sika Aprioku.
The plaintiffs are also asking the court to nullify the primary election conducted by the Okocha-led APC and the candidates who emerged from it, and who have already been declared winners in 20 councils across the state.
The APC chairmanship candidates from the Beke faction are praying the court to direct RSIEC to declare them the authentic winners of the August 30, 2025, council elections in Rivers State.
When the matter came up for hearing yesterday, the court noted the absence of the counsel for RSIEC. All other parties present applied for an adjournment, and the presiding Judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo, adjourned the case until October 8 for an accelerated hearing.
Recall that the Beke had written to RSIEC, urging the Commission not to recognise any individual who did not emerge from primaries conducted under his leadership, insisting that he remains the authentic state chairman of the party based on the law.
RSIEC, in its response, maintained that it neither monitored the primaries conducted by the Beke-led APC nor recognised their candidates. It would be recalled that on August 12, 2024, a Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt had dismissed the seven-member Caretaker Committee of the APC in Rivers State, led by Okocha, which was appointed by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
Justice Aprioku, ruling in a suit filed by Sam Sam Etetegwung, Banarth Ezemoye, Ezekiel Ubom, and others on behalf of the democratically elected APC executive in the state, reinstated the executive led by Beke as the legitimate leadership of the party in Rivers State.
The court issued a perpetual injunction against the Okocha-led caretaker committee, prohibiting them from interfering with the Beke-led executive until the end of their four-year term.
Additionally, the court restrained the APC’s national leadership from recognising the Okocha-led committee, directing them to acknowledge the Beke-led executive as the party’s authentic leadership until their term expires.
The court also criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for supporting the dissolution of the democratically elected APC executives and warned that leaders of political parties must adhere to their own constitutions and avoid acting recklessly.
