Some elders in Rivers State have approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to declare the purported peace agreement with the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike unconstitutional.
They stated that the said agreement, which was signed on December 18, was not only illegal but amounted to usurpation, nullification, and undermining of the extant/binding relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The plaintiffs, led by a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Bonny State Constituency, Hon. Victor Okon Jumbo, are Senator Bennett Birabi, Senator Andrew Uchendu, Rear Admiral O.P. Fingesi, Ann Kio Briggs, and Emmanuel Deinma also asked the court to order the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a fresh poll to replace 27 lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
Listed as defendant in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1718/2023 are President Bola Tinubu; the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the Rivers Assembly, Speaker of the Rivers State Assembly, and the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
They contended that neither President Tinubu nor Governor Fubara have the statutory powers to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from conducting fresh elections to replace the 27 Rivers State lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
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