Edozie Njoku is authentic chair of APGA, says Chekwas Okorie

Chekwas Okorie, chair of the board of trustees (BoT) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), says Edozie Njoku is the authentic national chair of the party.

In a statement issued on Friday, Okorie said some members of the party are spreading “mischievous and misleading propaganda regarding the status” of Njoku as the national chair of APGA.

BACKGROUND

Njoku has been in a leadership tussle with Victor Oye, the factional chair of APGA.

In October 2021, the supreme court affirmed an appeal court judgment recognising Victor Oye as the national chair of the party.

Following protests that trailed the decision, the supreme court said Njoku was not a party to the judgment.

In March 2023, a five-member panel of the apex court ruled that in the 2021 judgement, Njoku’s name was erroneously written as Oye.

Justice Mohammed Lawal, who read the judgement, said the court has the power to review its verdict and correct such “accidental slip or error” when it is brought to the court’s attention.

In reviewing the 2021 judgement, the court, therefore, expunged the part where Oye’s name was written as the national chair of the party.

The court delivered judgment following a motion that was brought before the court by Njoku.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recognised Njoku as the national chair of the party.

‘PEOPLE SPREADING FALSE NARRATIVE’

Okorie said “purveyors of the false narrative” are claiming APGA was not a party to the suit at the supreme court and that Njoku was not affirmed as the national chair 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,” the statement reads.

“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 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.”

Okorie said the 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,” he said.

“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.”

The party’s founder alleged that certain individuals are determined to see that the party’s chair is selected from a particular region in Anambra.

“In about 20 out of 22 years of the existence of APGA, all national activities of the party were held at Awka, Anambra State,” he said.

“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 at the Supreme Court in the face and demand that the apex court should reverse its gazzetted judgment.”