Supreme Court fixes date to hear re-listing suit against ex-Gov. Chime

The Supreme Court on Monday fixed January 23, 2017 to entertain a motion seeking relisting of an appeal against the emergence of former Governor Sullivan Chime as the Enugu State Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in 2011.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Chief Alexander Obiechina, the party’s governorship aspirant in the primary that produced Chime, had approached the apex court for the reconstitution of his appeal.
The appellant is seeking an order for enlargement of time within which to apply to have his appeal re-entered on the court list for hearing on its merit.
He also sought an order to hold that the appellant’s appeal, which was struck out on October 22, 2015 without any notice to the appellant, be re-entered for hearing.
Obiechina also sought an order that the appeal be given a special fixture and accelerated hearing in the interest of justice.
The appellant averred that on September 29, 2015, the apex court adjourned the appeal and other pending interlocutory applications to February 22, 2016 for hearing.
According to the motion, the appellant received two separate hearing notices from the registry of the court confirming the adjournment of the appeal and its fixture for February 22.
The motion further averred that the appellant did not receive any other notice indicating any change of the fixture.
It also said the appellant did not receive any notice of any other proceeding either contradicting or altering the court’s proceedings of September 29, 2015.
The motion said, however, that when the appellant and his counsel appeared before the court on February 22, they were surprised to notice that the appeal was not listed.
According to the motion, the appellant felt aggrieved and denied of his right to have his appeal heard.
Swearing to an affidavit, Obiechina said: “I feel a sense of miscarriage of justice.
“That I verily believe that my appeal ought to be re-entered in the list of the Supreme Court to be given due accelerated hearing as a debt owed to justice.”
The Presiding Judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, held that the court was led to strike out the appeal on the ground that parties were no longer interested to pursue it.
Mohammed said: “We were told that the issues raised had been overtaken by events.
“However, nobody, not even the court, can stop you from pursuing justice.
“But owing to the fact that all the respondents are not in court, the matter cannot be entertained today.
“The earliest this matter can now come up for hearing is January 23, 2017.”
NAN reports that respondents to the suit are PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission and Chime.
The appeal was challenging the emergence of Chime at the PDP Enugu State primary that made him candidate and eventually governor-elect.
The appellant had filed the appeal to challenge the shifting of the party’s primary election, originally scheduled for January 9, to January 12 that year.
He had prayed the court to disqualify Chime’s emergence as the primary had violated the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2010.