The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed two interlocutory appeals brought before it by an aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant, Jimi Lawal.

Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun dismissed the two appeals following their dramatic withdrawal by the appellant’s counsel, Chukwudi Enebeli.

Mr Lawal and another chieftain of the PDP in Ogun, Oladipupo Adebutu, were locked in a fierce legal battle on who should fly the party’s flag at the governorship election.

The odds have, however, favoured Mr Adebutu following the dismissal of Mr Lawal’s suit at the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

In the instant matter, Mr Lawal had filed two appeals challenging the use of the court record transmitted by another party and the procedural policy in accepting and using the disputed record.

At proceedings, a five-member panel of justices of the apex court subjected the appellant’s counsel to questioning over the desirability of pursuing Interlocutory appeals at the expense of the substantive matter.

Ms Kekere-Ekun informed the counsel that the court had no luxury of spending time on interlocutory appeals before coming to the substantive matter.

She further drew the lawyer’s attention to the fact that the appellant’s appeal was time-bound and must be tackled at the substantive level instead of dissipating energies on the interlocutory ones.

Mr Enebeli, who claimed to have got the hint from the justices, subsequently applied for withdrawal of the appeals.

The apex court directed the counsel to go and proceed with how to get the substantive matter brought before the court within the time allowed by law. 

(NAN)