The High Court of Rivers State, Port Harcourt Judicial Division, has ordered the Rivers State Government and the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) to conduct local government elections in the state. This ruling, issued by Honourable Justice I.P.C. Igwe on September 6, 2024, follows a lawsuit filed by the Action Peoples Party (APP) challenging the failure of the state government to organize local government elections in accordance with the Nigerian Constitution.
The case, **Suit No. PHC/2696/CS/2024**, brought before the court by the APP, argued that the 2nd and 3rd Defendants (Rivers State Government and the Governor of Rivers State) failed to make adequate provisions for elections into the Local Government Councils, violating Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended. The court ruled that elections must be held to ensure the councils are governed by democratically elected officials.
Justice Igwe, in his ruling, emphasized that the failure to conduct elections into the councils was a breach of the Constitution and referred to the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling in **SC/CV/343/2024** (Attorney-General of the Federation vs Attorney-General of Abia State and 35 Others), which ordered elections after the expiration of the tenure of the former local government councils on June 17, 2024.
The High Court’s ruling further instructed that RSIEC must comply with the provisions of the Rivers State Electoral Commission Law No. 2 of 2018, mandating the immediate organization of elections for the councils in line with Section 5(a) of the law.
