PRESS RELEASE
The public, especially members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Nigeria and abroad have continued to be fed with mischievous and misleading propaganda regarding the status of Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA and the National Working Committee (NWC) under his leadership. This is in spite of the verifiable fact that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has since complied with the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on the 23rd of March 2023, which affirmed the national convention of APGA held at Owerri in Imo State on the 31st of May 2019, where Chief Edozie Njoku and members of the National Working Committee of the party were duly elected.
These purveyors of the false narrative have variously stated that APGA was not a party to the suit at the Supreme Court and that Chief Edozie Njoku was not affirmed the national chairman of the party.
To sustain their mischief they continued to refer to the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on the 14th of October, 2021, by a panel presided over by Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili now retired. This judgment which is now defunct contained many errors which Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili (JSC rtd) in an elucidating letter written on the 7th of November, 2022, stated as follows: “However in the cause of the trajectory of errors, the name of Chief Victor Oye kept recurring in the record of the judgment instead of the right party to the proceedings, Chief Edozie Njoku.”
For the purpose of clarity, I venture to outline this trajectory of errors as follows:
1. The Suit Number used for the judgment of October 14, 2021 belonged to another suit with different parties, different subject matter and different legal representations. This was a critical clerical error which was not the fault of the parties in the suit.
2. An earlier panel headed by Hon. Justice Kayode Ariwoola had ordered that for the interest of fair hearing all parties who have interest in the APGA leadership dispute must be joined. Unfortunately, Chief Edozie Njoku who had applied to be joined was not joined.
3. The Court of Appeal sitting in Kano on this same APGA leadership dispute denied Chief Edozie Njoku his application to join but instead joined Chief Victor Oye who applied days after Chief Edozie Njoku had been denied joinder. But in the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Kano at page 74, it acknowledged its own error for not joining Chief Edozie Njoku and admitted that it amounted to denying him his fundamental human right to fair hearing.
4. In paragraph 1 of page 13 of the judgment of October 14, 2021, Chief Victor Oye’s name was erroneously written as the national chairman of APGA instead of Chief Edozie Njoku. Reacting to this slip of pen and tongue, Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun who is now the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria in her concurring contribution to the lead judgment of 24th March 2023 stated: “In the circumstances, l hold that the applicant has satisfied me that there was an error in the Appeal Number reflected on the front page of the lead judgement of Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili (JSC now retired) and that the name at page 13 line 3 to 4 of the said lead judgment should read Chief Edozie Njoku and not Chief Victor Oye. I therefore grant the application in the terms set out in the lead judgment.”
It is to be noted that the corrected judgment which has been gazetted and reported in the Nigerian Law Reports read as follows: Citation: (2023 LPELR/61016(SC) Suit No SC/CV/686/21
Chief Edozie Njoku v Chief Jude Okeke and;
1. All Progressives Grand Alliance
2. Chief Victor Ike Oye
3. Alhaji Rabiu Garba Aliyu
4. Independent National Electoral Commission.
This gazetted suit has exposed the lie that APGA was not mentioned in the Supreme Court judgment when indeed APGA was a party to the suit as can be seen. This is the judgment any person still in doubt can access with the citation record provided here for verification.
It is to be emphasized that the erroneous judgment of 14th October 2021 has since been discarded and has ceased to exist in the records of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
It is this judgment that the FCT High Court 40, Bwari enforced in its well-considered judgment delivered on 6th June 2023, which specifically affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA.
Chief Victor Oye proceeded to the Court of Appeal to appeal the judgment of the FCT High Court 40, Bwari and the judgment that found him guilty of contempt of court for convening a national convention of APGA in flagrant disobedience of the order of court not to do so. At the Court of Appeal Chief Victor Ike Oye formulated 4 grounds of appeal against the judgment that found him guilty of contempt of court and 6 grounds of appeal against the judgment that enforced the judgment of the Supreme Court. On the 28th of June, 2024, in a landmark unanimous judgment delivered via zoom by a panel of 3 Justices and watched by interested members of the public in Nigeria and in the diaspora resolved all the 10 grounds of appeal in favour of the respondents namely: Otumba Kamaru Lateef Ogidan and Alhaji Rabiu Mustapha – members of the National Working Committee of APGA elected along with Chief Edozie Njoku at the Owerri convention.
It is heartbreaking how a progressive political party founded on clearly defined progressive ideology captured succinctly in the party’s manifesto and the directive principles of its objectives in the party constitution registered with INEC has over time been reduced to a cash cow by political brigands and buccaneers for nearly 20 years out of its 22 years existence.
APGA has been derisively described at various times as Agulu People’s General Assembly (APGA), Agulere People’s General Assembly (APGA) and Aguata People’s General Assembly (APGA), depending on which part of Anambra State each governor elected on the platform of the party hails from. APGA became the only party in Nigeria where a Treasurer who was not in the line of succession in the party was imposed on the party as national chairman without passing through the process of national convention. APGA became the only party in Nigeria where a person called Victor Oye was practically conscripted from nowhere and foisted on the party in a kangaroo convention at Awka, Anambra State as national chairman even before he became a registered member of the party. It is this same APGA that Governor Chukwuma Soludo appointed his Special Assistant called Sly Ezeonwuka and foisted him as the national chairman of the party in an illegal convention nullified by a court of competent jurisdiction and affirmed by the Court of Appeal. This is a clear case of executive rascality by a governor who swore to an oath of office to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the rule of law.
In about 20 out of 22 years of the existence of APGA, all national activities of the party were held at Awka, Anambra State. Over 60% of the National Working Committee of the party comes from Anambra State. INEC which has the statutory mandate to ensure that political parties observed Federal Character in its leadership structure as clearly stated in the Electoral Act turned the other face until recently that Daniel has come to judgment in the person of Chief Edozie Njoku as National Chairman.
The Nigerian public is waiting to see that audacious and suicidal counsel that will look the Supreme Court in the face and demand that the apex court should reverse its gazzetted judgment.
It is unfortunate that the rebellious gang in APGA believes that what money cannot do does not exist, but the authentic APGA believes that what God cannot do does not exist.
Nigerians who are lovers of democracy should join to admonish Governor Soludo of Anambra State to allow APGA to breathe.
Chief Dr. Chekwas Okorie
Chairman Board of Trustees (BOT)
Founder/pioneer National Chairman, APGA
