BREAKING! High Court Sacks Jumbo Major House Caretaker Committee, Declares It Unconstitutional, Illegal, Non-Existent

A Rivers State High Court has declared the Caretaker Committee of the Jumbo Major House led by Jasper Jumbo as unconstitutional, illegal and was at all moments non-existing.

The presiding judge, Justice Esor Teetito made this declaration on Tuesday, September 16, 2025 while delivering judgment in Suit No. BHC/101/2016 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Claimants in the suit are Wari-Alabo Sodienye Jumbo and two others, while the respondents are Wari-Alabo Jasper F. Jumbo and 21 others.

Justice Teetito delivered his judgment after hearing the applications of the Jumbo Major House Council of Elders led by its Chairman, Wari-Alabo Sodienye Jumbp, and Tamunoala Chapp-Jumbo.

The Court in its judgment, also dismissed in its entirety the counter-claim filed in the said suit by the Caretaker Committee against the Jumbo Major House Council of Elders.

It held that the said Caretaker Committee is alien and unknown to the 1971 Constitution and Regulations of the Jumbo Major House, hence it is unconstitutional, non-existing, and cannot administer or interfere in the affairs of the Jumbo Major House.

Recall that Justice Lemea Ngbor of the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt had on Monday, March 4, 2024, set aside a consent judgment in Suit No. PHC/4086/2019.

The Court took the decision upon the application of the Jumbo Major House Council of Elders in the said Suit, wherein the Obenibe of Epie Kingdom, His Royal Highness, King Malla Sasime, Obenibe XI, was the claimant while the now demised Secretary of Jumbo Major House, Chief Henderson Jumbo and eight others were the respondents.

The Court further held and declared that the perennial Power of Attorney of Wari-Alabo Jasper Jumbo, having been duly revoked by the Jumbo Major House as also admitted by recipient himself (Wari-Alabo Jasper Jumbo), was therefore non-existing any longer and illegitimate.

In the said Suit, Wari-Alabo Jasper Jumbo was the 3rd defendant in the 1st set of defendants, while the Jumbo Major House Council of Elders was the 2nd set of defendants.  

Reacting to the news of the judgment, a member of the Jumbo Major House, Darlington Jumbo said “the implication of the said ruling of the honourable court is that the purported Caretaker Committee never at any moment, represented or acted for or on behalf of the Jumbo Major House”.

“The ruling in the said Suit No. BHC/101/2016 therefore brings to an end, all the issues of the said unconstitutional and uncustomary Caretaker Committee. To God be all the glory!”

Several other members and elders of the Jumbo Major House also applauded the judgment, noting that this will bring some reprieve to the beleaguered chieftaincy house which has over the years been plagued by litigations and internal wrangling.