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A lawsuit aiming to declare the seat of Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, the member representing Ideato North/South Federal Constituency, vacant has been filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/28/1/2025, was initiated by Hon. Augustine Nwachukwu, Imo State PDP Chairman, Hon. ThankGod Okeke, and three others, all believed to be loyalists of the sacked former Secretary of the PDP, Samuel Anyanwu and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
The plaintiffs are relying on Sections 65(2)(b) and 68(1)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to argue that Ugochinyere’s expulsion from the PDP, the party that sponsored his election, has rendered his seat vacant. They claim his position is no longer valid unless protected by constitutional exceptions.
However, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has dismissed the suit as baseless and politically motivated. In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA described the legal action as a desperate ploy by Wike’s loyalists to manipulate the judiciary for political gains.
The group criticized the plaintiffs for pursuing what it termed a “kangaroo suspension,” which lacks legal grounds to justify Ugochinyere’s removal from office. HURIWA accused the Wike faction of relentlessly targeting Ugochinyere due to his vocal opposition to the defection of sacked pro-Wike lawmakers and his support for Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
“The suit, filed by pro-Wike lawyer JJ Usman SAN, seeks an impossible ruling,” HURIWA stated. “It is absurd to ask the court to declare the seat of a lawmaker vacant when he has not decamped from his party.”
HURIWA urged political actors to stop wasting taxpayers’ money on what it called “embarrassing legal projects” and called on the judiciary to resist being used as a tool for political vendettas. The group also reiterated that the former Rivers State House of Assembly members who defected to the APC had legally forfeited their seats, unlike Ugochinyere, who remains a PDP member.
“The courts have already ruled against those who illegally paraded themselves as lawmakers after decamping.
Also, Samuel Anyanwu is no longer the PDP National Secretary, and no amount of legal maneuvering will change that,” HURIWA concluded.
The lawsuit has sparked widespread criticism, with many viewing it as another futile attempt by Wike’s allies to settle political scores and undermine democratic processes.
