Rivers Elders Sue Tinubu, AGF, INEC Over Truce

President Bola Tinubu, Attorney General of the Federation and the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC have been taken before a Federal High Court in Abuja over an alleged unlawful agreement on the power tussle in Rivers State.

Also joined in the suit as respondents are Governor Fubara, Rivers State House of Assembly, Speaker of the House of the and the chairman of INEC.

Plaintiffs in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1718/2023 are a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Bonny State Constituency, Victor Jumbo, Senator Bennett Birabi, Senator Andrew Uchendu, Rear Admiral O. P. Fingesi, Ann Kio Briggs and Emmanuel Deinma.

The grouse of the aggrieved elders is centered on an alleged unlawful agreement imposed on the governor in the bid to resolve the political logjam in the state.

They are contending that the said agreement which was signed on December 18 was not only illegal but amounted to an usurpation, nullification and undermining of the extant/binding relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

They are praying the court to, among other things, determine whether President Tinubu, Governor Fubara and the Rivers State Assembly have the right and are entitled to enter into any agreement that has the effect of nullifying or undermining the constitutional/legal potency of the provisions of Section 109(I)(g) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

They contended that neither President Tinubu nor Governor Fubara has the statutory powers to stop INEC from conducting fresh elections to replace the 27 Rivers State lawmakers.

The said lawmakers defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC. No date has yet been fixed for hearing of the suit.