Supreme Court strikes out Senator Magnus Abe appeal on Rivers APC primary election

The Supreme Court in Abuja this Monday,  struck out an appeal filed by Sen Magnus Abe praying the court to make pronouncement on the propriety of the direct and indirect primary elections conducted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state for the nomination of its governorship candidate for the 2019 general elections.
The apex court struck out the appeal on the grounds that the notice of appeal filed by the senator was defective and not in compliance with the order of the court.
Acting CJN, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, who delivered the unanimous decision of the 7-man panel of justices of the court held that the notice of appeal was defective because it did not contain the names and titles of parties in the matter.
Besides, the acting CJN also held that the notice of appeal offended section 285 of the 1999 constitution because amendment cannot be done to the notice of appeal in view of the fact that the 14 days required by law to file the appeal have expired.
Sen Abe had approached the court asking it to make clarification on which of the two primary elections is authentic in the eyes of the law.
However, the APC through its counsel, Mr Jibrin Okutekpa objected to hearing of the appeal on the grounds that names of appropriate persons affected by the suit were not listed on the notice of appeal and thereby making the appeal incompetent and incurably defective.
Justice Mohammed in the ruling, agreed with APC counsel and struck out the appeal because the notice of appeal was defective.
The court rejected the plea by Jane’s counsel, Henry Bello, that the ommission should not visited on his client adding that the notice of appeal cannot be refiled because the 14 days allowed by law to do so, had expired.