By Tina Amanda
An Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt has set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, which was presided over by Justice Lambo Akanbi, that had dismissed the local government chairmen elected under the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.
The case traces its roots to 2015, when, following the assumption of office by the immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) filed a suit challenging the local government elections that brought in the APC chairmen.
After the Federal High Court ruled against the chairmen, they appealed the decision, arguing that the court had refused to join critical parties in the matter, including those who would be directly impacted by the ruling.
Delivering the judgment, a three-man panel of the Appeal Court, led by Justice A.H. Lager-Balogun, criticized the Federal High Court for failing to address the jurisdictional issues raised by the appellants and for not joining relevant parties despite the potential impact of the decision.
Justice Lager-Balogun declared that the elected local government chairmen and their councilors were duly elected, and ruled that the earlier judgment which ousted them was null and void. However, the court declined to issue consequential orders regarding the vacancies at the 23 local government councils.
Following the ruling, James Kalu-Momg, counsel for the embattled LGA chairmen, spoke to the press, detailing the Appeal Court’s stance. He noted that they would review the judgment to determine their next course of action.
“By virtue of this judgment it then means that the duly elected chairmen of 2015 have been reconfirmed. It goes naturally, if we confirmed that there are vacancies in the local government councils, hence our election, the judgment that nullified our election has been overturned this morning.
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