A’Court Strikes Out Sacked APC LGA Chairmen’s Suit

An Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt has struck out the appeal filed by 22 sacked All Progressives Congress (APC) Local Government Council chairmen against Rivers State Government, Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) and two others.
The three-man panel of judges led by Justice Tani Yusuf-Hassan, last Wednesday, in Port Harcourt, in a unanimous judgment, struck out the appeal on the grounds that there was no notice of appeal in the court’s records.
Justice Yusuf-Hassan, who read out the unanimous judgment, said there was no need to go into the merits of the matter since there was no record of notice of appeal traceable, and therefore, struck out the appeal.
Speaking to newsmen outside the court, Counsel to the Rivers State Government, and RSIEC, Echesina Etiaba (SAN), welcomed the judgment, and advised the applicants to go and prepare to participate in the next council elections slated for April 17, in the state.
However, on his part, one of the counsels to the sacked 22 LG chairmen, Mike Wodi, expressed shock over the judgment, but thanked God that the matter was not dismissed.
He disclosed that he would go back to the records to check whether the notice of appeal was in the file so that they can return to the court for the re-listing of the matter, adding that there was need to hear the matter on its merit.
The Tide reports that the embattled 22 LG chairmen were elected under the administration of former Governor, Rotimi Amaechi in 2015 on the platform of the APC, but were sacked by Governor Nyesom Wike in compliance with a court judgement.
The sacked politicians are asking the court, among other things, to reinstate them or grant them the remuneration they would have been paid for the three years’ tenure because they were wrongly removed from office.