By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA – The suit  seeking to unseat the governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, suffered a set back yesterday, as an Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal sitting over the matter, struck-out the brief of argument filed before it by the appellant, Mr. Ikechi Emenike, on the premise that it was voluminous.

The court, however, ordered the appellant to promptly abridge the 106-paged brief of argument he filed in opposition to the lower court judgment that okayed Governor Thoedore Orji to contest the April 26 gubernatorial election in Abia State, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Justice Jimmy Bada, who presided over a three-man panel of justices that heard the matter yesterday, relied on the provisions of Order 18 Rule 6 of the Appeal Court Rules, to strike out the appellant’s brief of argument, noting that it ought not to have exceeded 30 pages.

The court took the action after listening to oral arguments by both counsel to the appellant, Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN, that of the governor, Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, and counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olusola Oke.

Akintola had urged the court to determine the appeal on the basis of the brief which he said was not only holistic, but effectively encapsulated all the legal grounds of error that favoured the incumbent governor.

His submissions were countered by the respondents who insisted that the rules specifically provided that such arguments must be ‘brief’ and concise.

Consequently, they pleaded the panel to go ahead and strike it out, a request that was accordingly granted, yesterday.

Emenike is praying the appellate court to declare him as the authentic flag-bearer of PDP in Abia State, just as he is contending that Governor Orji was not validly nominated to contest the 2011 general election in the state.