From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court will on March 5 deliver judgment in the leadership crisis rocking the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The appeal was filed by a chieftain of the party, Igo Aguma, against the Court of Appeal judgment that set aside the decision of the High Court, which had earlier declared him the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party in the state.
After listening to arguments canvassed for and against the appeal on Wednesday, Justice Amina Augie, who led a five-member panel of justices, fixed the date for judgment.
In the judgment now under appeal, the appellate court sacked Aguma as the caretaker committee chairman of the APC and recognised Isaac Ogbobula, as the authentic caretaker committee leader.
It held that it was the exclusive right of the National Executive Committee of the APC under the party’s Constitution to appoint a Caretaker Committee for any organ of the party.
However, Aguma rejected the judgment, raising some issues, which he said vitiated the verdict of the court of appeal.
He questioned the jurisdiction of the court of appeal to entertain the matter.
He also argued that since the subject matter of the case was already at the Supreme Court, the court of appeal overreached itself by giving the judgment.
Meanwhile, the APC and other parties involved in the suit prayed the apex court strike out the appeal for being incurably defective and lacking in merit.
Aguma’s faction immediately after the judgment of the appeal court-appointed his Deputy, Ben Chioma, to act temporarily as the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party pending the completion of its appeal at the apex court.
