2023: Njoku-led exco begs INEC to honour Supreme Court judgment,  recongise him as APGA national chair

From Fred Itua, Abuja

He stated stated this at a news conference in Abuja, while reacting to a letter written by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Mary Peter-Odili to clarify the apex court’s judgment on the crisis.

Njoku noted that the letter from the retired Justice stating that Victor Oye’s name was erroneously written and mentioned as the chairman of the party had vindicated him of the accusation that he forged the judgment of the apex court.

He also appealed to Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State and other members of the party to intervene and unite the party ahead of 2023 general elections.

He begged: “I am begging everybody involved, particularly Victor Oye, to sheath his sword, and the game is up.

“I beg the governor of Anambra State to rise to the occasion. If we do not rise to the occasion, we are going to run into serious problems in the forthcoming elections, including all the forthcoming elections in Anambra state.

“I say this by virtue of his being the Governor of Anambra State, Soludo should rise to the occasion and let this crisis in APGA be buried once and for all.

“Nobody is chasing your seat. If you genuinely believe in APGA and you are for the interest of APGA and not any other party, come forward and let us move this party forward.

“A supreme court judgement cannot be shove aside, unless we want to play with 2023 general elections.

“If we take that risk, we are going to jeopardize our chances in that election because it is going to be an unlawful exclusion.”

He added that nobody including the party nominated candidates should be afraid of coming together to resolve the issue because no one will be sanctioned.

“Nobody should be afraid, at least 70 to 73 per cent of all those who got their tickets under the former leadership of 2019 are still the ones who have their tickets,” he noted.

Njoku had written a letter to Justice Peter-Odili requesting for correction of Oye’s name included in the Supreme Court judgment of Oct. 14, 2021 as APGA national Chairman.

Justice Peter-Odili’s letter addressed to Njoku dated November 7, 2023 was titled RE:REQUEST FOR A CLARIFICATION LETTER AS REGARDS TO THE 9th OF MAY,2022 CORRECTION OF NAME BY YOUR LORDSHIP ON THE SUPREME COURT APPEAL NO:SC/CV/687/2021

Justice Odili wrote: “I indeed recall your letter dated 6th May, 2022 to me as the Presiding Justice of the Panel and the other four Justices which requested for correction of the 14th October,2021,Supreme Court Judgment, wherein the name of Chief Victor Oye was erroneously inserted instead of the name of Chief Edozie Njoku.

“It is to be placed on record that I corrected the mistake by replacing Chief Victor Oye’s name with that of Chief Edozie Njoku on Paragraph 1 of page 13 of the Oct. 14,2021 Judgment.

“The Correction was made having cognizance that on the day of delivery of the judgment being Oct. 14 2021 by a slip of the pen and tongue the name of Chief Victor Oye was brought in.”

Justice Odili further said that the error was pointed out to her by other members of the Panel who reminded her that Oye was not a party to the Appeal or the proceedings which emanated from the Jigawa High court.

She further argued that the Sept. 1, 2022 press statement released by Dr Festus Akande, Director of Media, Press and Information of the Supreme Court which denied all the Certified True Copies of the amended Judgment issued to Njoku, clearly stemmed from the misconception of the true position.

“By this clarification, it is to be noted that Oye was not a party to the proceedings and the proper party for whom the judgment and orders referred is Njoku.”

She expressed confidence that her four other members of the panel of Justices would confirm all that she had stated. I hope the situation is clarified and the matter put to rest.”