This column originally appeared in Vanguard
All human beings are flawed because we are all mere mortals. And even those who are essentially decent sometimes do the wrong thing.
Kingsley Chinda is a kinsman of Nyesom Wike, the overbearing FCT Minister and ex-Governor of Rivers State. They both hail from the same Ikwerre ethnic group and local government area; and Wike has just prevented the sitting governor, Sim Fubara (an Ijaw), from running for a second term and installed Chinda as the APC’s candidate for next year’s governorship election.
This complete lack of respect for the political rights of Ijaws and other groups in a multiethnic state has generated widespread outrage.
Many people who know Chinda, myself included, regard him as a decent fellow and are surprised he is allowing himself to be used in this way.
And this violation of the zoning principle is not the only objection to Chinda’s candidacy. Please see below a letter written to him by Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, a Senior Counsel of Nigeria, who comes from Opobo and is currently on a leave of absence in the Kingdom of Lesotho.
“OPEN LETTER TO HON. KINGSLEY OGUNDU CHINDA: YOU CAN VOLUNTARILY RESIGN, INSTEAD OF ALLOWING THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT ABUJA TO DISQUALIFY YOU BECAUSE YOUR DEFECTION FROM PDP TO THE APC DID NOT COMPLY WITH BOTH SECTION 68 OF THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION NOR THE SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA JUDGMENT OF 28TH FEBRUARY 2025 (REMEMBERING THE CASE OF CELESTINE OMEHIA)”
Dear Hon. Rep. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, Sir, Let me begin by commending you for the good qualities that you have consistently exhibited over the years.
You are a very trustworthy, loyal and reliable person. These are very rare qualities to find in anyone who claims to be a politician in Nigeria.
In the eleven years (2013 to 2024) that I was a staff of the National Assembly’s Institute for Legislative Studies, Abuja, in my interactions with legislators, you are one of the very few who always consistently spoke the truth and kept their promises. However, by virtue of your recent actions you have drifted and deviated from both the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria dated 28th February 2025.
Ironically, in our WhatsApp chats within the month of March 2025, it was your good self that drew my attention to the proper procedure for defection by legislators as spelt out by the said judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered on 28th February 2025.
According to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, there are certain criteria that must be fulfilled before any legislator can validly be said to have defected from one political party to another in accordance with Section 68 (for National Assembly legislators) and Section 109 (for State House of Assembly legislators).
In the case of Rivers State House of Assembly and Another vs. Governor of Rivers State and Nine Others Unreported Suit no: SC/CV/1174/2025, it was stated that the criteria and prerequisite steps before any valid defection are as follows:
1. The existence of crisis within the political party to which the said legislator belongs;
2. A valid letter of resignation by the legislator submitted and acknowledged by the previous political party;
3. A valid letter and membership card issued by the new political party to the said legislator;
4. A formal announcement of defection by the Speaker or Presiding Officer of the legislature wherein the said legislator belongs;
5. All the foregoing steps are a nullity in the event that the said legislator did not hold prior consultations with his constituents who voted him into office to confirm that they are in support of his defection from the political party upon which they voted him to another political party.
In the case of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, his constituents had written a formal letter dated October 2025 wherein they specifically stated that they did not approve of his planned defection from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
They specifically stated that they prefer for him to focus on the legislative duties that they elected him to perform and not issues of political party defection.
The said formal letter warned Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, that commencement of recall process under Section 69 of the Nigerian Constitution as the consequences.
In keeping with the said warning the constituents of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda has filed two lawsuits seeking the Speaker of the House of Representatives, National Assembly to declare that Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda’s seat is vacant. This is in accordance with the Supreme Court of Nigeria’s judgment in Oloyo vs Egbe, Speaker of the Bendel State House of Assembly (1983) wherein it was held that it is only the Speaker that can declare that any legislator’s seat is vacant.
Ironically, this landmark case is reported inside the Legislative Law Reports of Nigeria (Vol. 1) of which Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda is the owner and publisher.
Amongst other reliefs that the constituents of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda is seeking from the Federal High Court Abuja is a declaration to disqualify Hon. Chinda on the grounds that the members and composition of the APC Screening and Appeal Committees respectively were skewed in favour of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda having been chaired by lawyers and persons who have a long history of personal, professional and political party affiliation. This is a violation of the right to fair hearing to other candidates and contestants against Hon. Chinda which is itself a violation of Section 36(1) of the Nigerian Constitution.
Based on the foregoing, this letter is an appeal to the good side and good conscience or what is left of it, of Hon. Chinda, to respectfully resign as the APC Rivers State Governorship candidate.
Remember that the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the year 2007 removed Sir Celestine Omehia from his seat as Governor of Rivers State.
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Recall that as at then, Sir Celestine Omehia had the backing of both the immediate past Governor of Rivers State and the then President of Nigeria (Olusegun Obasanjo)!!!
To avoid entering the history books for the wrong reasons, Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda is respectfully requested to resign and allow for a free and fair primaries, not the one characterised by coercion of candidates into involuntary withdrawals.
Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, is a man of conscience and truth and I believe that he will harken to the voice of reason and conscience.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, SCN
+2349056760119
RESPONSES TO donzol2002@yahoo.co.uk or to 0805 404 6887.
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