Supreme Court shifts APC’s Rivers appeal to April 8, 11
Andrew Orolua, Abuja
Members of All Progressives Congress (APC) are to wait till April 8th and 11th for the Supreme Court to hear their four separate appeals which arose from their acrimonious primary election that denied the party governorship candidate at the just concluded March 9, 2019 election in Rivers State.
The hearing of the appeals which were earlier scheduled to hold on Thursday could not take place due to the absence of the lawyer representing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
When the appeals were called on Thursday, appellant counsel, Henry Bello, informed the seven-man panel led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, that INEC lawyer missed his flight from Port- Harcourt.
The appeals are those of Senator Magnus Abe against INEC and others, Mr. Tonye Cole against Senator Magnus Abe, the All Progressive Congress against the Peoples Democratic Party and the last one by the APC.
Senator Magnus Abe in his appeal is praying the apex court to make a pronouncement on the authenticity of the direct and indirect primaries election conducted by APC in Rivers State for the nomination of candidates.
The appellant specifically wants the court to determine which group of candidates produced by the indirect or direct primary were lawfully elected and should be recognised by INEC.
Although Bello sought an order to stand down the matter to enable the counsel who was said to be airborne arrive, the presiding justice and Acting CJN ruled that the apex court does not stand down matters for anybody or group.
Consequently, he adjourned the matter to Monday, April 8.
On the two other appeals filed by Mr. Tonye Cole, a factional governorship candidate of the APC, Justice Muhammad shifted the hearing on the matters to April 11 to enable parties file and exchange necessary processes.
He also made an order abridging the time for the parties to file and exchange papers because the matters are time bound, being pre-election matters.
However, in the fourth appeal filed by the APC seeking a consolidation of all existing appeals relating to the primary elections, the court adjourned the matter indefinitely for the party to regularise their processes.
