The founding national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Chekwas Okorie has expressed concerns that the public have continued to be fed with mischievous and misleading propaganda regarding the status of Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA.
Okorie, who is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of, in a statement in Abuja, said 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.
He said the purveyors of false narrative have variously stated that APGA was not a party to the suit at the Supreme Court, and that Chief Njoku was not affirmed as 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.'”
He emphasised 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,” he said.
“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,” he said.
He noted that in about 20 out of 22 years of the existence of APGA, all national activities of the party were held at Awka, Anambra State, adding that 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,” he said.
He said 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.
