By Peter Duru, Makurdi
The Court of Appeal sitting in Makurdi has granted an application for substituted service of the notice of appeal, record of appeal and appellant’s brief of argument
on Mrs. Regina Akume, Dickson Tarkighir and Solomon Wombo, in Appeal number CA/MK/PE/15/2022 pending before the court.
Others affected by the order is Arc. Asema Achado, Lady Blessing Onuh, Sesoo Gboko, David Ogewu, Adama Adama and 4 others.
The three-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Danjuma gave the order while ruling on an ex-parte application filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and 11 others through their counsel, Mr. Douglas Pepe, a Senior Advocate.
The appellate court ordered that the processes be served on the affected respondents through the Secretary, Legal Adviser, Publicity Secretary or any other official, agents or employee of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Benue State chapter at the State headquarters of the party located at No. 75 J.S Tarka Way, Makurdi, Benue State.
The court also ordered that where the aforementioned officers could not be reached for any reason, “service can be done by leaving the processes at the gate or any prominent place within the premises of No. 75 J.S Tarka Way, Makurdi, Benue State, pending when the said respondents would “file processes in the substantive appeal containing their individual or joint addresses at which further processes will be served on them.”
It would be recalled that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had appealed against the judgement of the Federal High Court Makurdi which dismissed its suit seeking to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from accepting names of House of Representatives candidates from the APC in Benue state for the 2023 general elections.
Also joined in the appeal was the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the APC as first and second respondents, respectively.
Relatedly, the court also ordered that appeal processes be served on all the State Assembly candidates of the APC in the State through substituted means in the Appeal Suit No:CA/MK/PE/17/2022, filed by the PDP and 32 others.
The post PDP v APC: Appeal Court orders substituted service on Akume, 11 others appeared first on Vanguard News.
