By George OPARA
Hon. Kingsley Chinda, member of the House of Representatives and, erstwhile Minority leader, Tuesday officially dumped the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) but his winning chances for the 2026 Rivers State APC governorship race and 2027 elections are yet, polarized.
Though, his alignment with the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike provides strong political backing, but his chances are clouded by legal battles and controversy surrounding his defection from the PDP.
Seeming ready to romp over the 2027, gubernatorial race but underlying forces under the aegis of the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP), a registered Nigerian association of legislative lawyers in Rivers, his home-state has refused to shift ground against Chinda.
Spear News Nigeria gathered that in Rivers State politics, ALDRAP acts as a public-interest litigant, filing constitutional lawsuits against state and federal officials.
Before his June 2, defection, ALDRAP, this newspaper recalls, has filed a suit against 27 state lawmakers and Kingsley Chinda over their Party-hopping from the opposition PDP to the ruling APC.
The suit also seeks an order mandating the Speaker of the House of Representatives to produce a record of Chinda’s defection prior to his participation in the APC guber primaries in the state.
However, Chinda’s electoral viability include his procurement of the APC guber ticket that precipitated
the withdrawal of key guber rivals like incumbent governor Siminalayi Fubara, Tonye Cole and George Kelly.
Not minding that he had won the APC primary unopposed, polling 268,497 votes across the state with the backing of Wike, his close ally who commands the support of a formidable political machinery in the state but his political and legal challenges remain unabated.
Civil groups and rival politicians have filed lawsuits in a court, sitting in Abuja, seeking to bar INEC from recognizing his candidacy and demanding his legislative seat to be declared vacant.
Critics allege that by securing the APC ticket before formalizing his defection, it violates the Electoral Act regarding dual party membership.
The ALDRAP national leadership, notably the Executive Secretary and co-founder, Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja still, raised issues of defection irregularities, insisting that his defection letter (read on the floor of the House on June 2, 2026) which was curiously backdated to April 23, 2026, have created a window for a fresh lawsuit, arguing that Chinda was technically an opposition lawmaker when he ran on the ruling party’s ticket.
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