BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI
ABUJA—A five-man panel of justices of the Supreme Court, Thursday, okayed accelerated hearing on the suit seeking to sack Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State from office.

The suit was lodged before the apex court by a factional gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, Chief Ikechi Emenike, who is challenging an Appeal Court judgment that affirmed Governor Orji as the authentic candidate of the party for the April 26 gubernatorial elections.

When the matter came up for hearing yesterday, counsel to the appellant, U.N Udechukwu, SAN, brought an application praying the apex court for abridgement of time as well as accelerated hearing on the matter.

Though PDP, which was represented in court by its national legal adviser, Chief Olusola Oke, and counsel to the governor, Mr Valentine Offia, did not oppose the application, however, they requested for time to file their response to the substantive appeal.

Consequently, in a short ruling delivered by the Supreme Court yesterday, it ordered all the parties to ensure that they filed and exchanged their briefs of arguments before the next adjourned date, January 16.