The Federal Excessive Court docket in Port Harcourt has dismissed a swimsuit by the Labour Party (LP) searching for to unseat 27 members of the Rivers State Home of Meeting who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Delivering the ruling on Tuesday, April 15, Justice E.A. Obile mentioned the courtroom lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter as a result of it had already been addressed by the Supreme Court docket.
“The Supreme Court docket’s judgment is binding on this courtroom,” Justice Obile declared. “The difficulty of the lawmakers’ standing has been settled, and this courtroom lacks jurisdiction to reopen it.”
Within the swimsuit, marked FHC/PH/25/2024, the Labour Party argued that the lawmakers’ defection was unconstitutional below Part 272(3) of the 1999 Structure (as amended), and requested the courtroom to declare their seats vacant.
Nevertheless, the choose held that the matter was res judicata, because the Supreme Court docket had resolved it in a February 28, 2025 ruling.
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In the course of the March 17 proceedings, lead counsel for the Rivers Meeting, Okay.C.O. Njemanze, SAN, alongside F. Orbih, SAN, and J.Y. Musa, SAN, urged the courtroom to dismiss the case, describing it as functus officio—a matter that had already been determined.
However Clifford N. Chuku, Esq., counsel to the Labour Party, disagreed. He argued the Supreme Court docket ruling touched on the doctrine of necessity, not the legality of the lawmakers’ defection, and insisted the courtroom ought to have given the case a full listening to.
Following the decision, Chuku introduced plans to attraction. “We’re going to the Court docket of Appeal,” he advised journalists. “The Supreme Court docket didn’t instantly handle the defection situation, and we consider the matter deserves a good and substantive listening to.”
The 27 lawmakers had publicly declared their swap from the PDP to the APC in 2024 throughout a plenary session, waving APC flags to mark the defection.
They have been later formally welcomed into the APC at a high-profile occasion on the Port Harcourt Polo Membership, hosted by then caretaker committee chairman, Chief Tony Okocha.
Regardless of the authorized defeat, the Labour Party maintains it’s going to pursue the case additional, insisting that constitutional order mus
t prevail.
