Tina Amanda
The case filed by the Peoples Democratic Party urging the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, not to recognise any candidate from the All Progressive Congress in Rivers State for the 2019 general elections was stalled, on Tuesday, at
the Federal high court sitting in Portharcourt.
PDP had filed a lawsuit asking the court to make declarative injunctions in its favour that the APC in Rivers State does not have candidates for elective positions for the 2019 general election.
The PDP also wants the court to mandate the independent national electoral commission, INEC, not to recognise any candidates of the APC.
Our reporter Tina Amanda reports that when the matter was mentioned in court, Counsel to INEC informed the court that he had not been served all processes.
The presiding Judge, Justice J K Omotosho ordered that all processes should be served INEC and adjourned the matter to 13th of December for hearing.
Speaking to journalists, Counsel to the PDP, Ferdinand Oshoke-Orbih, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said that INEC needed to be Served for the interest of justice.
“INEC is the first defendant and needed to be served certain documents in the interest of justice and to avoid denying them a fair hearing, for them to have an opportunity to state their own side of the story because that is what natural justice demands, to hear the other sides.
“It is a different matter if you are given an opportunity and decided not to come to court, but you must be given the opportunity, that is why the case was adjourned and the court issued an order that they should be served”
Also speaking, Olatoke, counsel to the All Progressives Congress APC, said the court adjourned the case to give a fair hearing to all the parties.
“There was an issue between INEC and PDP, and in order to give a fair hearing to all parties, the court extended the time for INEC to file whatever they want to within 24hours and for the rest of us to file within 6 hours”
