A Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt has “thrown out a suit” filed by legal practitioner Williams Stanley that “challenged the just-concluded local government elections.”
Stanley had filed the suit against President Bola Tinubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation, the state’s Sole Administrator, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), and its chairman.
In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Stephen Jumbo, focused on the “locus standi of the claimant and jurisdiction of the court.”
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He held that the court “lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit,” explaining that under “emergency rule,” “only the Supreme Court has the exclusive jurisdiction to hear such suits.”
The judge also determined that Stanley “lacked the locus standi to institute the suit” because he was “not able to show personal interest above public interest” or that his “civil rights and obligations” had been violated.
The judge added that the claimant “failed to show sufficient proof of injury or threat to injury or hardship” and that the interest he sought to protect was not his personal interest but that of the governor of the state.
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On the local government election itself, Justice Jumbo declared that the poll was “constitutional and legitimate.”
He also noted that “the conduct of the LGA election was not done by the governor or sole administrator, but the RSIEC.”
Reacting to the judgment, the claimant’s lawyer, Godsent Elewa, said he would “encourage his client to appeal the ruling.”
In contrast, the lawyer for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Monday John-Otokwala, said the “judgment of the court represented the position of the law.”
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