….Appeal Court adjourns hearing till Jan 23

ABUJA– A mild drama played out before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Thursday, as two senior lawyers locked horns over the case that is seeking to sack the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly that are loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike.

Trouble ensued after a special panel the appellate court constituted to hear all the matters relating to the political crisis in Rivers State, called up the appeals for hearing.

The appellate court had scheduled a total of 11 appeals involving different parties in the state, for hearing.

Among the cases included an appeal the Rivers State Government filed to stay the execution of the judgement that mandated Governor Siminalaye Fubara to re-present his 2024 budget proposal to the pro-Wike faction of the State Assemby led by Hon. Martin Amaewhule, as well as an appeal the Action Peoples Party, APP, filed to declare seats of the lawmakers vacant over their alleged defection to the All Progressives Congress.

Equally listed for hearing was an appeal marked: CA/1159/2024, which was filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

However, when the matter was called up, two lawyers, Mr. B. F. Folurunsho and Mr. J. Y. Musa, separately announced their appearances for the PDP.

While Musa, SAN, told the appellate court that he was mandated by the party to withdraw the appeal, Folurunsho told the court that no such directive came from the party.

Following the controversy, the three-man special panel, led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi, acknowledged that it got a letter from the PDP indicating that it did not authorize the appeal.

The panel added that the PDP, in its letter to the court, which was signed by its Acting National Chairman and Secretary, applied to discontinue the case.

Consequently, it queried the two lawyers about how they were briefed to appear in the matter.

Whereas Musa, SAN, maintained that he was briefed by the Alhaji Umar Damagum-led executives, Folurunsho said he was duly assigned the case by the National Legal Adviser of the party whom he said has the authority to handle all legal matters involving the party.

Both lawyers claimed that they got hearing notices to appear for the appeals.

In view of the development, the appellate court panel ordered the two lawyers to go back to the PDP and sort out the issue.

“The issue of which counsel that has been briefed should be clarified by the 29th Respondent (PDP) and the court notified.

“This is not an issue this court can delve into at this time,” Justice Otisi held as she adjourned some of the appeals to January 23, 2025.

The counsel that represented the Rivers State Government, Mr. Goddy Uche, SAN, told the court that aside from the 11 cases, four more appeals bordering on the crisis in the state, had also been filed.

He prayed for an adjournment to enable the matters to be consolidated, a prayer that was granted by the court which fixed November 22 as return date for another round of the appeals.

Meanwhile, earlier in the proceedings that lasted over six hours, the court reserved its judgement on five consolidated appeals that bordered on the Local Government elections that recently held in the state.

The appeals were filed by the Attorney General of Rivers State, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and Boot Party, while the APC filed two Cross Appeals.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was listed as a Respondent in the appeals.

It will be recalled that Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja had in a judgement he delivered on September 30, barred INEC from releasing voters register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, for the conduct of the LG elections that held on October 5.

The trial court equally barred the Inspector General of Police and the Department of the State Service from providing security for the elections.

The orders followed a suit that was filed by the APC.

Justice Lifu held that the RSIEC erred by fixing date for the conduct of polls in the 23 local government areas without strict compliance with relevant laws guiding such election.

He faulted the electoral body in the state for not publishing the 90 days mandatory notice, before it scheduled the election.

More so, the court held that the update and revision of voters register to be used for the election ought to have been concluded before any valid date could be fixed for the polls.

The judgement came on the heels of an order of a high court in Rivers state, which gave the nod for the polls to hold as scheduled.

However, in its appeal, the Rivers state government contended that the Abuja court acted beyond its powers, insisting that the issue of LG elections in the state was outside the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court.

Vanguard