The attention of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has been drawn to the purported Judgment of the Court of Appeal Abuja Division delivered today (28/6/2024) concerning the national leadership of our great Party under the immediate past National Chairman, Chief Victor Ike Oye.
For the sake of clarity, and to put germane issues in vivid perspective, APGA is not a party to both the suit at the High Court and the subsequent appeal determined today. In the same vein, Chief Edozie Njoku is also neither a party to the suit nor to the appeal.
The Plaintiffs at the trial Court alleged that Oye is no longer National Chairman of APGA in view of the corrected Judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on 24/3/2023. Oddly enough, as at 6/6/2023 when the trial Court gave Judgment to these Plaintiffs, Oye’s tenure had already elapsed on 31/5/2023 by operation of the law.
One may ask, what law is in operation here? The answer is not far-fetched. It is the supreme law of the land – the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Section 223(1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution stipulates for “the periodical election on a democratic basis” of national officers of a political party. This election must be made “at regular intervals not exceeding 4 years.”
In strict adherence to the 1999 Constitution, APGA conducted Congresses and National Convention in May 2023. These Congresses led to the election of brand new executive committees across all levels of the party. It culminated to the National Convention of 31/5/2023 at which Chief Barr. Sly Ezeokenwa was elected National Chairman of APGA alongside other members of the current National Working Committee of APGA and the said National Convention has further received judicial imprimatur.
The Plaintiffs who took Oye and INEC to Court, as minions of Edozie Njoku, did not realise that there is a constitutional time limit to tenure of officers of political parties. Today, in their trademark mischief-making, they will portray the Judgment of the Court of Appeal as one that has made Edozie Njoku their Chairman in perpetuity! Chairman with unlimited tenure! Whereas in reality, Chief Edozie Njoku was never, at any point in both documented or undocumented APGA history, elected as APGA National Chairman.
The position of the Supreme Court in its Ruling of 24/3/2023 that corrected an accidental slip in the Supreme Court Judgment of 14/10/2021 remains immutable and inexorably clear that the correction of accidental slip did not in any way affect or alter the substance of the Supreme Court Judgment of 14/10/2021 delivered in favour of Chief Victor Ike Oye.
Consequently, given that the Court of Appeal is handicapped to flex muscles with the Supreme Court, today’s Judgment remains insignificant and inferior to the subsisting Judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on 14/10/2021 in favour of Oye.
In conclusion, APGA remains unperturbed. Party members and the general public are assured of the unfettered commitment of APGA to Constitutional Democracy and Rule of Law in Nigeria.
Today’s Judgment of the Court of Appeal, like previous untenable judgments on APGA leadership, has no bearing whatsoever on the extant leadership of our great party under Barr Sly Ezeokenwa.
SIGN.
Mazi Ejimofor Opara, KSM.
National Publicity Secretary, APGA.
