Appeal Court Rejects Chief Martin Agbaso’s application in favour of Chief the Victor Oye-led

BOBOJAY August 17, 2017 0

The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu has dismissed Chief Martin Agbaso’s application in favour of Chief the Victor Oye-led executive of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The Court refused Chief Agbaso’s request for an adjournment, pending the outcome of an appeal purportedly filed at the Supreme Court.

Chief Agbaso had sought to create a splinter group that illegally tried to install him as National chairman of APGA in place of the subsisting legally-recognized Oye.

The Court had, on Tuesday, in Enugu, turned down the plea to adjourn hearing of the substantive appeal on the case listed for hearing.

The Judge said they were prepared to proceed to hear the substantive Appeal since all the briefs of arguments had been filed and exchanged by parties.

In a bid to frustrate the hearing of the appeal, both counsels to the respondents, K. C. Nwafo, SAN and Tochukwu Maduka had prayed the court to adjourn the case, pending the outcome of the purported appeal.

Maduka had claimed that he had filed all the relevant documents including affidavits showing that an appeal and application for stay of proceedings were pending before the Apex court. He, then, sought for an adjournment to stall hearing in the main appeal.

Countering the argument, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, who led five Senior Advocates alongside seven other senior lawyers for the appellant, Chief Victor Oye, said that the purported documents amounted to nothing since they were not certified true copies and the court could not rely on same.

The three-man Special Panel headed by Justice Abdul Aboki, in a ruling, agreed with the Supreme Court’s position that a lower court should stay proceedings when an appeal was pending before it.

The panel held however, that the onus was on the applicant seeking stay of proceedings to satisfy the court below that there is such an appeal,

The court then proceeded to hear arguments on the main appeal from all the parties and reserved judgment to a date that would be communicated to the parties.

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