ABUJA/Nigeria: Hearing continued today in Abuja in an Appeal Court case filed by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi over the nullification of his position as senator-elect.
Counsel to Nwaoboshi, Tony Idigbe (SAN ) in opening his submission, urged the court to jettison the April 3, 2019 federal high court judgment against Nwaoboshi as the suit which the lower court relied on was filed out of time and therefore statute-barred.
In his counter submission, counsel to Ned Nwoko, Ahmed Raji (SAN) asked the court to dismiss the appeal as it was defective, null and frivolous.
Quoting legal authorities and landmark records, Nwoko’s counsel said Nwaoboshi’s lawyer relied on issues that were not known to law and never emanated from the federal high court judgment.
He noted that the extraneous grounds stated in the submission by counsel to Nwaoboshi were akin telling a lie against the lower court.
The lawyer said the issues put forward were taken before an FCT, Abuja high court and not federal high court.
The learned counsel, Raji who spoke with ornate brilliance amidst pin-drop silence, said Nwoko’s case was not statute-barred, because time limit concerning the matter was legally predicated on three grounds – PDP Primary election, decision of the party and INEC action of name publication.
He explained before the appeal court that the crux of Nwoko’s case was rooted in the wrongful action of INEC to have published Nwaoboshi’s name based on the incongruous decision of the PDP as consequence of a primary election freely won by Ned Nwoko.
He said that the action of wrong publication of Nwaoboshi’s name by INEC instead of presentation of Nwoko’s name was the issue for determination and could not be statute-barred as the relief Nwoko filed was far ahead of constitutionally required time limit.
In conclusion, Nwoko’s lawyer asked the court to dismiss Nwaoboshi’s appeal for lack of merit and uphold the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja in favour of Nwoko.
Meanwhile, judgment has been reserved, heralding what promises to be an interesting outcome.
