Irregular Application Stalls Hearing On Ohanaeze Leadership Crisis

An Enugu High Court presided over by Justice A. O. Onovo, last Wednesday adjourned hearing on the Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo leadership crisis due to irregular application by the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs had through their Counsel, Mr Simeon Ogbu, applied to regularise their process, including their written address and writ of summons.
Ruling on a counter application by the defence counsel, Chief James Ukenyi (SAN), the court held that a process which the plaintiffs sought to regularise their application was non-existent in the eye of the law.
However, Ukenyi had opposed the motion on the grounds that the documents they sought to regularise were not before the court.
“I refer your lordship to the written address of the counsel which does not have a stamp and is at variance with Order 39, Rule 1 (2),” he said.
The defence counsel said that any process which did not comply with the aforementioned authority could not be deemed to be before the court.
“The written address has not been authenticated and filed before the court and cannot even carry the weight of a document that can be sought to be regularised,” Ukenyi said.
Responding, Ogbu applied for an adjournment to enable the plaintiffs to properly bring the processes before the court.