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 18th December was not only illegal but amounted to an usurpation, nullification, and undermining of the extant/binding relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The plaintiffs, led by a member of the state House of Assembly representing Bonny State Constituency, Victor 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 (INEC) to conduct a fresh poll to replace 27 lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Listed as defendants in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1718/2023 are President Bola Tinubu; the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Governor Fubara, the Speaker of the state Assembly, and the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
They contended that neither President Tinubu nor Fubara have the statutory powers to stop INEC, from conducting fresh elections to replace the 27 state lawmakers who defected from the PDP to the APC.