Rivers APC primaries: Supreme Court strikes out Magnus Abe’s case

The Supreme Court on Monday in Abuja, struck out an appeal filed by Senator Magnus Abe, challenging the primary election conducted by the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Rivers State.
Abe had prayed the court to make a pronouncement on the direct and indirect primary elections conducted by the APC for the nomination of its candidates for the 2019 general elections.
The apex court struck out the appeal on the grounds that the notice of appeal filed by the Senator was defective and not in compliance with the order of the court.
The acting Chief Justice, Ibrahim Muhammad held that the notice of appeal offended section 285 of the 1999 Constitution.
Muhammad said amendment cannot be done to the notice of appeal in view of the fact that the 14 days required by the law to file the appeal had expired.
Abe had approached the court asking it to make clarification on which of the two primary elections was authentic in the eyes of the law.
However, the APC through its counsel, Mr Jibrin Okutekpa (SAN), objected to hearing of the appeal arguing that names of  persons affected by the suit were not listed on the notice of the appeal.
Okutekpa said this made the appeal incompetent and incurably defective.
The court rejected the plea by Abe’s counsel, Henry Bello that the omission he erroneously made should not be visited on his client.
He added that the notice of appeal could not be refilled because the 14 days allowed b y the law had expired.
A Federal High court, Port Harcourt, had on January 7, nullified the direct and indirect primaries conducted by the two factions of the APC in the oil-rich state.
Presiding over the case, Justice Kolawole Omotosho, also restrained Nigeria’s electoral umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from presenting Tonye Cole and Magnus Abe as governorship candidates for the elections.