A Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, has dismissed a suit brought before it challenging the Rivers State High Court ruling which nullified the tenure extension of 23 elected local council chairmen in the State.
The Appellate Court ruled that the extension approved by the Martin Amaewhule-led House of Assembly was illegal, upholding judgement delivered by the lower court.
In the judgment delivered on Monday, a three-man panel of the appellate court upheld the ruling of the High Court and dismissed the appeal with suit No: CA/PH/145M/2024 for lacking merit.
The judgement came barely two months after a State High Court in Port Harcourt declared Section 2 of the Rivers State Local Government Law No.4 of 2024, which extended the tenure of the elected council officials by six months after the expiration of their tenure, unconstitutional, null, void and inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
During sitting by the lower court on suit brought before it by the chairmen of Bonny and Opobo/Nkoro local government, Enyiada Cookay-Gam, Justice Diaketima Kio held that the Martin Amaewhule-led House of Assembly overreached itself and that its actions were contrary to the provisions of the amended Nigerian Constitution.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the judgment, Cookay-Gam, and six others, had in a suit No: CA/PH/145M/2024 approached the Appeal Court, asking that the court upturn the earlier judgement by the lower court.
