The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, today, Wednesday, struck out an application which sought to make Ojukaye Flag-Amachree and others joinders in the appeal challenging the judgment of a Rivers State High Court over the All Progressives Congress, APC, primaries conducted in June.
The appellate court also struck out the preliminary objection to the motion for joinder. Both came with costs against both parties.
The Court's hammer also came hard on the lawyer representing the 23 pro-Magnus Abe supporters involved in the matter, SC Nwafor, saying he had no reason to have been part of the party's legal representative ab initio .
Two matters were heard on the appeal with the first determined while the second, TCA/PH/198/18, had yet to be decided as of the time of this report.
While the motion for joinder was withdrawn to make for speedy hearing of the main appeal, which is in Appeal No: CA/PH/198/2018, the preliminary objection to the motion for joinder was also withdrawn by the Respondents on same ground.
As it struck out both the motion for joinder and the preliminary objection, the court awarded the cost of N30,000 and N20,000, respectively, against both parties.
The Court took arguments by counsels on TCA/PH/198/18, being another matter, briefly before going on recess.
The Court disqualified the pro-Magnus Abe counsel, describing him as “meddlesome interloper”.
The counsel, SC Nwafor, Esq., who had claimed to be the legal representative of the 23 pro-Abe supporters who dragged APC to court, had sought, through an application, to withdraw the notice of the application. However, the appellate denied him his quest, saying he was an alien in the matter as the law did not recognise him a counsel representing APC.
The matter of Nwafor’s role in the whole matter had been a contest as his claims to be APC’s counsel was challenged by the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree leadership. The Rivers State APC’s argument before Hon. Justice Chinwe Nwogu that Nwafor did not have the consent of the party’s National Legal Adviser to appear for the party in the matter was overruled by the Rivers state judge.
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