A Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a case instituted by Chief Ime Mbatt Essien challenging the nomination of Chief Godswill Akpabio as the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State for the April
\n2011 elections.<\/p>\n
Chief Ime Mbatessien, had in the Suit No: FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/522\/2011 which also had the State Security Service(SSS), National Security Adviser, The Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation as defendants challenged among other things, the eligibility of Governor Akpabio to contest in last year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
But Justice Adamu Bello held that the Supreme Court’s declaration of Akpabio as winner of the election foreclosed the hearing of the suit.<\/p>\n
“This suit has been overtaken by the judgment of the Supreme Court and it is, therefore, struck out,” he said.<\/p>\n
At the resumed hearing last Thursday, Mr Ahmed Attah, counsel to the plaintiff, said that the case was billed for mention.<\/p>\n
“I need an adjournment to get further instruction from my client on the possible withdrawal of the suit because it was no longer necessary.<\/p>\n
Paul Usoro,SAN, counsel to the governor, opposed Attah’s submission, adding that the suit lacked substance.<\/p>\n
He said the plaintiff had not deemed it fit to serve his client with the originating summons five months after the suit was filed.<\/p>\n
Governor Akpabio\u2019s Counsel also kicked against the application by the plaintiff\u2019s Counsel for further adjournments on the matter, positing that since April last year when Gubernatorial Elections were conducted in Akwa Ibom State, the suit had become spent and that the time used was sufficient for the Plaintiff’s Counsel to have communicated adequately with his Client.<\/p>\n
Mr Ahmed Musa, counsel to the second defendant, urged the court to strike out the suit as “adjourning the matter gives hope and life to it.”<\/p>\n
“The suit should be struck out in view of the Supreme Court’s decision conferring legitimacy on the election of Akpabio,” Musa said.<\/p>\n
Consequent upon these submissions, the Plaintiff’s Counsel withdrew his application for an adjournment and applied that the case be struck out, and Justice Adamu Bello accordingly ordered that the Suit be struck out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a case instituted by Chief Ime Mbatt Essien challenging the nomination of Chief Godswill Akpabio as the Governorship candidate of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n