BY John Odhe
The Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt Rivers State on Wednesday affirmed Mr. McDonald Igbadiwei as the authentic president of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) dismissing the appeal of one of the presidential aspirants, retired Rear Admiral Geofrey Iyanga.
The appeal was in respect of the matter before the lower court presided over by Justice Michael Ekadi in Yenagoa.
It was an appeal filed by Iyanga challenging the legality or otherwise of the then electoral committee to conduct the election of the national executive council of the INC.
His case bothered on the issue of qualification and disqualification.
On the hearing of the lower court, there was a preliminary objection raised by the the counsel to the electoral committee challenging the jurisdiction of the lower court to hear the matter.
Instead of the court to entertain the preliminary objection based on jurisdiction, the high kept it aside and entertained other preliminary matters and stepped down the suit for hearing.
Aggrieved by the action of the lower court, counsels to the electoral committee and the INC, Mr. M.J. Numa, SAN, and Mr. Ebibenabo Okorodas respectively filed an interlocutory appeal before the court of appeal.
At the court of appeal, they argued on respective submissions and the court agreed that indeed the issue of jurisdiction is fundamental and that the court must first entertain an issue of jurisdiction whenever it is raised before any other thing.
The appeal court having ruled that the lower court had no justification to entertain the matter, went further to completely dismissed the suit filed by Iyanga.
The court thereby affirmed the conduct of the INC election conducted on April 10th, 2026 at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State by the retired Justice Francis Tabai led electoral committee.
It also affirmed Igbadiwei as winner of the election and as a result the president on the apex Ijaw sociocultural organization.
We are yet to be informed wether Iyanga will take his case to the Supreme Court for final verdict.
