Delta: Nwoko gets 6-day ultimatum to respond to appeals*Fixed May 22, 2019 for hearing
By Andrew Orolua, Abuja
The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday issued a six-day ultimatum to Ned Nwoko, who is contesting the Delta North Senatorial District seat with incumbent Senator Peter Nwaoboshi to file his response to Nwaoboshi’s and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appeals, otherwise, the appellate court will proceed to hear the appeals.
This ultimatum was sequel to the court granting an accelerated hearing of the two appeals filed by Sen. Nwaoboshi and the PDP challenging the decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which on April 3 nullified the candidature of Sen. Nwaoboshi in the just concluded National Assembly election.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court had on April 3 while delivering judgment on a pre-election suit brought by Nwoko, nullified Sen. Nwaoboshi’s nomination as the PDP candidate for the February 23 poll.
Nwaoboshi in his appeal is asking the Court of Appeal to determine whether the trial court was right when it held that the suit filed on December 11, 2018 was not statute barred in the light of the 14 days allowed in Section 285 (9) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
When the appeal was heard on Tuesday, Sen. Nwaoboshi’s lawyer, Anthony Idigbe (SAN) informed the court that they had filed an application to abridge the time within which the appeal should be heard because the respondent has refused to respond to the appellant brief of arguments.
He said that the judgment being challenged was delivered on April 3 and that constitutionally the appeal will expire on June 3, therefore, the court should limit the time allowed for the respondent to file his response to five days.
Nwoko’ s lawyer, Ahmed Raji (SAN) did not oppose the application, but sought seven days to file his response while counsels to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Anthony Onyere and Emmanuel Inodem respectively, also did not oppose the application.
Consequently, the court gave Nwoko, INEC and PDP five days to file their responses and Nwaoboshi one day to file his reply on point of law and thereafter, adjourned the appeal to May 22 for hearing.
