Hot SourceA Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt will on Thursday, October 2, deliver judgment on a suit filed by the sacked chairman and members of the Rivers State Local Government Service Commission over their removal by the former Sole Administrator, Ibok-Ete Ibas.
The claimants, Reverend Goodlife Iduoku Ben, Amadi Christian Echele, Chimenem Wisdom Jerome, and three others, who were appointed and sworn in by Governor Siminalayi Fubara, approached the court to challenge what they described as their unlawful removal after the former Sole Administrator announced their sack and moved to replace them without due process.
The claimants argue that they were duly appointed and confirmed by the Rivers State House of Assembly and that, before they were issued letters of appointment by the governor, records of their confirmation were already with the Clerk of the House.
In their affidavit, signed by the suspended chairman, Iduoku Ben, the claimants insisted that the Sole Administrator lacked the legal authority to suspend them and appoint a new Chairman and members of the Local Government Service Commission.
During one of the proceedings, the presiding judge, Justice Frank Onyiri, barred the former Sole Administrator, Ibas, from inaugurating the newly confirmed Chairman and members of the Rivers State Service Commission, and ordered that the status quo be maintained pending the court’s judgment.
When the case, earlier slated for judgment, was mentioned in court on Monday, Justice Onyiri requested more time and adjourned the matter to Thursday, October 2, 2025, for judgment.
The defendants in the suit are the former Sole Administrator of the state (representing the state government), the Accountant General, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, and eleven others.
Rivers: Court to deliver judgement on sack of Rivers LG Service Commission members
