A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt will on January 21, 2025, decide the fate of 27 lawmakers, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, in December last year.
The case was filed by the Labour Party, LP, which contends that the defecting lawmakers, who are loyalists of Nyesom Wike, the former Rivers State Governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, should lose their seats in the State Assembly, having dumped the party on which platform they were elected.
In its suit, labelled FHC/PH/25/2024, the Labour Party wants the court to declare the seats of the lawmakers vacant and order fresh elections for their replacement.
It also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to intervene through the conduct of by-elections for the vacated seats.
Similarly, the court will on December 10, 2024, also hear arguments in a suit filed by Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo and three other lawmakers loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, asking the court to bar the 27 defecting lawmakers from parading themselves as members of the Rivers State Assembly.
