The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, struck out two appeals brought before it by a former governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The former governor’s appeals were challenging the January 7, 2021 judgment of the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal, which held among others, that the suit seeking Dickson’s disqualification from contesting the last rerun senatorial election in Bayelsa State was not statute-barred and should be given accelerated hearing by the Federal High Court.
A five-member panel of Justices of the Apex Court, led by Justice Mary Peter-Odili, struck out both appeals after their counsel, including Sir Friday Nwosu, agreed to formally withdraw the appeals.
On the former governor’s appeal, the Supreme Court agreed with the counsel to the first respondent (Owoupele Eneoriekumoh), Pius D. Pius that, having earlier filed a notice of withdrawal, he could no longer take further steps except to withdraw the appeal.
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Dickson had, at a point, applied to withdraw the appeal, but later changed his mind and filed a motion, seeking to have the appeal heard, a move the respondents objected to, arguing that, having applied to withdraw for whatever reason, he could no longer change his mind to continue with the appeal.
The Court, while striking out Dickson’s appeal, agreed with the respondents that once a party files a notice of withdrawal, the only further step such an appellant could take is to formally withdraw the appeal, not to abandon the withdrawal notice and asked to be heard on the same notice of appeal.
The Supreme Court noted in the appeal by the PDP, that the party filed a notice of appeal without specifying the judgment of the Court of Appeal that was being challenged.
The three-member panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal, Port-Harcourt Division had, in the January 7, 2021 judgment, set aside the decision of the Federal High Court, Port-Harcourt, which struck out the suit by Eneoriekumoh, alleging that Dickson supplied false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Court of Appeal remitted the suit back to the Federal High Court for hearing on merit and the case has since been heard on merit by the Federal High Court in accordance with the Court of Appeal decision.
The trial court, in the judgment delivered earlier this year, held that the former governor did not supply false information as alleged by the plaintiff.
Eneoriekumoh has since approached the Court of Appeal in Port-Harcourt to challenge the judgment of the trial court.
Supreme Court strikes out appeals
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