Court restrains PDP, Orbih from conducting South-South zonal congress

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has issued an interim injunction restraining the Peoples Democratic Party and the National Vice Chairman South-South, Dan Orbih, from conducting the party’s South-South Zonal Congress.

The court ordered the party not to go ahead with the zonal congress scheduled to hold in Calabar, Cross River State Capital on Saturday, February 22.

The claimants in the suit marked PHC/551/CS/2025 are Tonu Uchechukwu Ejiogu and Field Nkor, who are members of the PDP in Rivers State, while the defendants are the PDP, and the Chief Dan Orbih.

Justice G.V. Obomanu gave the order following submissions by the counsel for the claimants, Emeka D.A. Ojoko.

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 Interlocutory Injunction.

Justice Obomanu also mandated all parties involved to maintain the status quo as of February 20, 2025, pending further court proceedings.

The court further granted the claimants’ permission to serve legal documents on the PDP and Orbih through substituted means, including posting notices at the party’s South-South Zonal Headquarters along Aboa Road in Port Harcourt and publishing the notice in a widely read national newspaper.

The order partly reads, “That Order of an 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 Rivers State or anywhere else in Nigeria on 22nd 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 at 20th 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 same at the gate of the Ist Defendant/Respondent’s South-South Zonal Headquarters.”

Justice Obomanu, however, adjourned the matter to February 28, 2025, for a hearing on the Motion on Notice.