Federal High Court, Abuja, has adjourned until July 20, a suit filed by Reform and Advancement Party (RAP) and its 2019 governorship candidate, Okere Kingdom, asking the court to restrain Hope Uzodimma from acting as Imo State governor.
When the matter was called, yesterday, Kingdom said he filed an application praying the court to abridge the time within which the defendants would file their responses.
Under the rule of law, the defendants have 30 days to respond but the plaintiff said he made the application for the court to abridge the time due to the urgency of the matter.
Kingdom said the matter was of constitutional importance because Uzodimma was occupying the seat of Imo governor illegally, having not participated in the 2019 election as a candidate of any political party.
All the defendants objected to the application on the grounds that they needed the time given by the constitution to respond.
Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Alhassan Umar, told the court that in line with the principles of fair hearing, the defendants needed to take sufficient time as allocated by the law to respond.
He said the plaintiff could not take the required time to file his processes only to ask the court to abridge the time for the respondents.
The judge, Justice Okon Abang, adjourned the matter until July 20 to hear the application.
Justice Abang also directed that hearing notices should be served on the Peoples Democratic Party since the party was not represented in court.
RAP and Kingdom approached the court seeking judicial interpretation on whether the All Progressives Congress (APC), indeed, sponsored Uzodimma in the 2019 governorship election.
Kingdom said the suit was predicated on a judgment of the Supreme Court which affirmed Uche Nwosu as the duly nominated APC candidate.
He said one of the issues he wanted the court to determine was whether Uzodimma lawfully participated and was sponsored by the APC to contest the 2019 governorship election in accordance with Section 177 (c) of the 1999 Constitution.