The Federal High Court, Abuja, has heard argument on a suit filed by the Reform and Advancement Party (RAP) and its candidate, Okere Kingdom, seeking the sack of the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma.
On Wednesday, Kingdom told the court that he filed an application for abridged time within which the defendants would file their responses, NAN reports.
The defendants have 30 days to respond but the plaintiff told the court that he made the application for the court to abridge the time due to the urgency of the matter.
The applicant, also a lawyer, maintained that the matter was of constitutional importance.
He argued that Uzodinma was occupying the seat of Imo governor illegally, having not participated in the 2019 election as a candidate of any political party.
Defendants objected to the application on the grounds that they needed the time given by the constitution to respond.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) counsel, Alhassan Umar, SAN, told the court the defendants needed to take sufficient time as allocated by the law to respond.
He argued that the plaintiff could not take the required time to file his processes only to ask the court to abridge the time for the respondents.
Justice Okon Abang adjourned the matter until July 20 to hear the application.
He directed that hearing notices should be served on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) since the party was not represented in court.
RAP and Kingdom are seeking judicial interpretation on whether the All Progressives Congress (APC) indeed sponsored Uzodinma for the election.
The suit was predicated on the judgment of the Supreme Court which affirmed Uche Nwosu as the duly nominated 2019 Imo governorship candidate of the APC.
“This is having regard to the tenor, clear and unambiguous legal implications/consequences of the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in appeal no: SC/1384/2019 which upheld the decision of both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court and affirmed Uche Nwosu as the authentic and duly elected/nominated 2019 Imo State governorship candidate of the APC”, it noted.
