Anambra guber: Hope for Soludo as appeal court voids suspension of Oye-led APGA faction

A court of appeal sitting in Kano has declared Victor Oye as national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The development comes amid the crisis affecting the party, which has led to two factions producing candidates for the Anambra governorship election scheduled for November 2021.

Festus Okoye, INEC commissioner for information and voter education, had earlier told TheCable that Musa Ubale, judge of a high court in Jigawa state, passed judgment in suit JDU/022/21, upholding the suspension of Victor Oye and affirming Jude Okeke as the party’s national chairman on June 30, 2021.

Okoye also cited another court order in suit number FCT/DW/CV/133/21 in which Bello Kawu, a judge at the federal capital territory (FCT) high court in Kubwa, on June 28, ordered INEC to monitor the primary election of the Jude Okeke faction and comply with the result.

Although Chukwuma Soludo, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who belongs to the Victor Oye-led faction of APGA had secured 740 votes to defeat other candidates in the party’s primary election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) picked Michael Umeoji (candidate Okeke’s faction) over Soludo as the standard-bearer for APGA.

In the judgment delivered on Tuesday, the appellate court justices unanimously disagreed with the lower court which ordered INEC to recognise Okeke’s faction.

The appeal court held that the lower court in Jigawa state had no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the case in the first place.

Previously, Chukwudi Okaa, judge of a high court in Awka, Anambra state, had also affirmed Soludo as the candidate of APGA ahead of the governorship election in the state.

On August 4, the court of appeal in Anambra, led by Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, also affirmed Soludo as the duly elected governorship candidate of the party.

Speaking on the development in a statement on Tuesday by Tex Okechukwu, APGA national publicity secretary, Oye asked INEC to immediately recognise Soludo as the APGA candidate for the Anambra governorship election.

“The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has praised the judiciary for standing firm in defence of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its statutes,” the statement reads.

“Reacting to the unanimous judgment delivered by the three Justices of the Appeal Court, Kano Judicial Division today, the National Chairman of the party, Ozonkpu Victor Ike Oye, through the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Barrister Tex Okechukwu, described the judgment as a watershed in Nigeria’s political life.

“He praised the Justices that sat over the case for their courage, uprightness and commitment to the promotion of justice, equity and fairness.

“Ozonkpu Oye said that the judgement had renewed the hope of the people of the country in the judiciary and appealed to the National Judicial Commission and the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association to ensure that any judge or lawyer found guilty of professional misconduct was brought to justice.