A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has restrained the People’s Democratic Party and the National Vice Chairman of the party in the South-South, Dan Orbih, from conducting the party’s zonal congress.
The congress was scheduled to be held in Calabar, Cross River State, on Saturday (today).
The claimants, in the suit marked PHC/551/CS/2025, are members of the PDP in Rivers State, Tonu Uchechukwu Ejiogu and Field Nkor.
Justice G.V. Obomanu issued the order following submissions by the claimants’ counsel, Emeka D.A. Ojoko, on Friday.
The court ordered the defendants, along with their agents and representatives, to halt any preparations for the congress until the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice for an Interlocutory Injunction.
Justice Obomanu also directed all parties involved to maintain the status quo as of 20 February 2025, pending further court proceedings.
The court also granted the claimants’ request to serve legal documents on the PDP and Orbih through substituted means, including posting notices at the party’s South-South zonal headquarters on Aboa Road, Port Harcourt, and publishing the notice in a widely circulated national newspaper.
The order partly reads: “That an order of interim injunction be and is hereby made restraining the defendants/respondents, their organs, agents, servants, assigns, and privies from conducting the 1st defendant/respondent’s South-South Zonal Congress in Calabar, Cross River State, or anywhere else in Nigeria on 22 February 2025, or any other date whatsoever, pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction.
“That an order is hereby made directing the parties to maintain the status quo ante litem as of 20 February 2025, pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction.
“That leave be and is hereby granted to the claimants/applicants to serve the originating processes and other subsequent processes to be filed in this suit on the defendants/respondents by substituted means, to wit, by pasting the same at the gate of the 1st defendant/respondent’s South-South Zonal Headquarters.”
Justice Obomanu adjourned the matter to 28 February 2025 for the hearing of the Motion on Notice.
