… Willie Obiano’s Governorship Threatened
BEVERLY HILLS, CA, January 15, (THEWILL) – A Federal High Court Abuja presided over by Justice Abdul Kafarati has dissolved the national executive committee of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) led by Chief Victor Umeh and declared Chief Maxi Okwu as the duly elected National Chairman of the party.
Justice Kafarati on Wednesday ruled that the tenure of the Umeh led executive had since expired.
UPDATE:
… Party rejects judgment, we are unruffled, says chairman
The national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) , Chief Victor Umeh, and the party’s national secretary, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi , have been sacked from office.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday sacked the top officers of the party in a ruling on a suit filed by a chieftain of the party, Chief Maxi Okwu, against Umeh, Shinkafi and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Okwu had dragged Umeh and Shinkafi before the court to challenge their stay in office beyond what the constitution of the party provided for.
He prayed for an order directing the first and second defendants and all officers they represented to vacate their offices forthwith not having been elected in accordance with Article 18(4) of the constitution of the party which prescribed that election into the offices shall be by secret ballot, and an order directing INEC to deal with Maxi Okwu’s leadership of APGA.
But counsel to Umeh, Patrick Ikwueto, SAN had urged the court to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction.
He submitted that the three plaintiffs, Ibrahim Carefor, Gbenga Afeni and Abubakar Adamu, had withdrawn from the suit, leaving Okwu and Dickson Ogu as plaintiffs.
Counsel to Okwu, Maduabuchi opposed the preliminary objection and urged the court to uphold that Shinkafi’s tenure as national secretary had since expired having been elected to the position on January 10, 2003.
Maduabuchi urged the court to direct INEC to recognise and deal with the Okwu leadership of the party.
Presiding judge , Justice Abdul Kafarati, held that the plaintiff had a locus standi, going by the affidavit in support of the originating summons to institute the suit as against the objection brought by the defendants challenging the legal interest of Okwu in instituting the suit.
He further held that every member had a duty to abide by the constitution of the party and that in any instance where the constitution was breached, the court would have jurisdiction to come in.
The judge however declared that Umeh who had been in office for over 10 years could not validly continue in office 10 years after he was first elected.
The court cited Article 18(2) of the constitution of the party which provides that any official of the party can only stay in office for a maximum of two terms of four years, ruling that Umeh and Shinkafi having been voted into office by voice votes rather than secret ballots as stipulated by Article 18(3) of the Constitution of APGA were not validly elected.
The court therefore ordered both Umeh and Shinkafi should vacate their offices of National Chairman and Secretary respectively.
But APGA in a swift reaction rejected the judgment, saying it was delivered in sheer disregard to a judgment of the Court of Appeal in Enugu which had upheld Umeh as the chairman of the party.
Shinkafi, in a chat with journalists after the ruling , described the judgment as a fraud and judicial rascality, saying it would be challenged in a higher court.
He wondered why a High Court would make order against APGA even when the party was not made a party to the case, adding that the Court of Appeal had earlier upheld the election of Umeh as the chairman.
In his reaction, Umeh said, “The judgment of Justice Kafarati did not come to us as a surprise because the judgment was supposed to have been delivered on February 7,so the sudden change of date was obviously to ambush the programmes of APGA and enable the other side pursue their case at the election tribunal at Awka but clearly the judgment was delivered without jurisdiction.
“The judgment is an attempt to execute the judgment of the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezulike, so it was that convention that was purportedly conducted that the judge relied on to make Maxi Okwu chairman. Justice Kafarati was gravely in error, so there is nothing to worry about, the convention has no foundation, and the said convention relied on by the court has been set aside by the Court of Appeal.We are unruffled by the judgment because we know that the Court of Appeal will at all times protect its judgment.
“Recalling that it is the same judge that nullified Oyinlola’s election, the judgment which is a hatchet job arrived late as APGA has successfully prosecuted the Anambra Governorship and winning with a landslide and the just concluded local government elections. I enjoin our party men to disregard the judgment as this is clearly a judicial rascality.”
Umeh and Shinkafi have filed an appeal against the judgment at the Court of Appeal in Abuja just as the party has also applied for a stay execution of the judgment.
APGA’s lawyer, Chief Patrick Ikwueto, (SAN) also asked the court for an order of injunction pending appeal by restraining the Maxi Okwu, s faction from interfering with the leadership and management of APGA.
