18/07/2025
GOV OTTI, LP SENATOR, APC CHIEFTAIN, OTHERS, RISK SACK OVER ELECTORAL FRAUD
Aggrieved members of the University of Port Harcourt Alumni Association have dragged some members to court over irregularities in the appointment of a new National Executive and the Board of Trustees.
The accused include a former Labour Party Senator from Abia Central - Hon. Darlington Nwokocha - who doubles as incumbent Acting factional National Secretary of Labour Party; the embattled Alumni BOT Chairman, Mr Tonye Princewill, who is an APC Chieftain in Rivers State and his predecessor, Dr Alex Otti, Governor of Abia State.
They have been sued by four aggrieved claimants for flouting the Uniport Alumni Association’s constitution during the recent national convention which held in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, that resulted in the purported selection of a new National Executive as well as Board of Trustees.
A writ of summons was served on the accused p by a Port Harcourt High Court on Monday, at the Unipórt Alumni National Secretariat in Choba, Rivers State.
In the writ of summons, the defendants were accused of failing to adhere to the association’s laws at its recent national convention by “selecting” rather than “electing” a new NEC and for illegal appointment of a six-man BOT in breach of the Association's grund norm.
The claimants alleged that one Mr Paul Abbey, the erstwhile BOT Secretary, who acted on behalf of Governor Otti, who was the then BOT Chairman, in defiance of their code of conduct, they served as BOT from 2019 to 2025 (six years), contrary to the four-year tenure stipulated in its constitution.
The claimants — Mr Ikpe Samuel, Mr Matthew Ogagavworia, Mr Sam Woka, and Dr Independence Enyindah — in their writ of summons - claimed that Mr Paul Abbey runs the UNIPORT Alumni Association as his personal property, appointing whomever he pleased without due consultations and in breach of the Alunni constitution.
An aggrieved member who spoke with our correspondent rants aa stated below:
“For instance, look at the purported NEC and BOT — five members from Mr Abbey’s Kalabari tribe have been installed as NEC and BOT Chairman. And let us shock you: most of these cherry-picked members are not even registered members of the association.
“UNIPORT is a federal university, not a Kalabari high school, where the embattled BOT Chairman, Mr Tonye Princewill, a former Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State and a brother to Mr Abbey from the Kalabari Ijaw stock of Rivers State, now presides.
“The embattled National Secretary, Mrs Phil Biobele, who is also a defendant in the suit, is of Kalabari origin but married to an Igbo man in Abuja, which is why she bears the surname Okoroafor — but she remains of Kalabari stock.
“The purported National 1st Vice President, Mr Dagogo Edmundson, and the National Financial Secretary, Mr Alamonia Ibiene, are also both from the Kalabari tribe. All because the then BOT Secretary, Paul Abbey, who called the shots then and now, is from Kalabari.
“Abbey did everything within his powers, albeit illegally, to select this crew, and it is only right that the claimants seek redress in court to squash his ‘Kalabari Republic’ in the national alumni body.”
The new embattled UPAA BOT and NEC, led by a controversial, fractional Labour Party National Secretary, one Senator Darlington Nwokocha, risk being dissolved, as the claimants are set to prove their case in court when legal proceedings begin in earnest.
Accompanied by affidavits and statements of claim, the aggrieved claimants are citing several acts of malfeasance and constitutional breaches, as well as repeated warnings issued to the erstwhile Transition BOT Secretary, Mr Abbey, who allegedly took decisions without recourse to the laid-down constitutional guidelines.
They further alleged that not even the rules set by Mr Abbey’s hand-picked Electoral Committee, led by one Mr Ben Willie Owuapu — another Kalabari tribesman appointed by Mr Abbey — were followed in conducting the alleged polls.
As at the time of this report, the four claimants have been removed from the group’s national platform by the embattled National Secretary, Mrs Okoroafor, who, for obvious reasons, to have taken offence at the members for resorting to the courts to seek redress.
