Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court has struck out the appeal filed by Senator Magnus Abe bordering on the intra- party crisis following the primaries of the Rivers state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a unanimous judgment led by the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ibrahim, Tanko Mohammed, the apex court dismissed the application seeking to amend the notice of appeal for lacking in merit.
The court also noted that the suit was incompetent and a gross violation of Order 2 Rule 8 of the Supreme Court rules.
It held that once a notice of appeal has been found defective, it cannot be amended.
Senator Abe in his own appeal was asking the apex court to determine the authenticity or otherwise of the direct primary conducted by the APC in Rivers State for the nomination of its candidates for the 2019 general election.
Abe, who is a factional leader of the Rivers APC, is praying the apex court to make a final pronouncement on the legality of both direct and indirect primary polls conducted by the two factions of the party last year.
The motion dated March 1, was predicated on eight grounds and affidavit of urgency among which is that the matter being a pre-lection suit, must by law, be fully determined within 60 days.