Sowore drops suit against John Momoh over election debate

Sahara Reporters publisher Omoyele Sowore

Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, on Tuesday informed an FCT High Court sitting in Jabi that he was dropping the suit filed against John Momoh.

Mr Momoh is the Chief Executive Officer of Channels Television.

Mr Sowore had on December 19, 2018, filed the suit through his lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, against the Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG), over the exclusion of his party from the vice-presidential debate held on December 14.

Other respondents in the suit are Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) and its Chairman, Momoh.

At the resumed hearing of the matter, Mr Effiong informed the court through an application that the party was withdrawing the suit against Momoh due to its inability to serve him hearing notice.

However, he appealed that on no circumstance should the name of Sowore be removed from the January 19 presidential debate.

Subsequently, Justice Danlami Senchi granted the application in accordance with Section 24 of Rules 1 and 2 of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High court.

Mr Senchi equally struck Momoh’s name out from the suit and referred the case file back to the Chief Judge of the FCT, Justice Ishaq Bello, for reassignment and awarded a cost of N5,300 against Sowore.

The judge had earlier handled the case as the vacation judge for the Christmas and New Year period.

NAN reports that the suit was filed against all the parties in charge of the vice presidential debate held on December 14, over the exclusion of Rabiu Rufai, the vice presidential candidate of AAC.