December 01, (THEWILL) – On March 24, 2023, a judicial panel comprising five judges of the Supreme Court delivered a final unanimous judgement upholding Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
The apex court affirmed that the purported removal of Chief Njoku by the High Court of Birnin Kudu in Jigawa State was not justiciable, referring to many similar Supreme Court authorities. Then, in a new twist, the apex court, on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, restrained Chief Edozie Njoku from parading himself as national chairman, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
The panel, led by Justice Stephen Adah, affirmed the emergence of Sly Ezeokenwa, an aide to Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State, as the authentic National Chairman of APGA.
The apex court, in two unanimous judgments, held that Njoku was wrongly laying claim to the party’s chairmanship position.
INEC, which was a party to the suit, had refused to obey the first judgment of the Supreme Court, despite receiving a direct service of the enrolled order of the judgement by the Chief Bailiff of the apex court and other communications.
Worried by this turn of events, two members of the National Working Committee of APGA approached the FCT High Court 40, Bwari, to seek the enforcement of the Supreme Court judgement as provided by the 1999 Constitution as amended, that any court of record below the Supreme Court has the mandate to enforce the judgement of the Supreme Court in the event of non-compliance by any of the parties.
In the course of trial, the court ruled on a motion and ordered that no party to the suit before it should conduct congresses, conventions and primaries, pending the determination of the suit.
Chief Victor Oye, in defiance of the court order, proceeded to conduct a convention of the party at Awka in Anambra State where one Mr Sly Ezeonwuka was elected as National Chairman of APGA.
The Njoku-led APGA promptly filed forms 48 and 49 to commit Chief Victor Oye and Prof Yakubu Mahmood, the Chairman of INEC, to the Correctional Centre for contempt of court.
Justice Magudu of the FCT High Court 40, Bwari delivered judgment on June 6, 2023 in favour of Chief Edozie Njoku and members of his National Working Committee as the authentic leadership of APGA in enforcement of the Supreme Court judgment.
A few months later, Justice Magudu convicted Prof Yakubu Mahmood and Chief Victor Oye for contempt of court, but he delayed sentencing to allow the contemnors the latitude to purge themselves of contempt.
Chief Oye again proceeded to the Court of Appeal to challenge both the judgement on the substantive matter of the enforcement of the Supreme Court judgment and the judgment on contempt of court.
On June 26, 2024, a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal resolved all the 10 grounds of appeal in favour of APGA under Chief Edozie Njoku as National Chairman.
It was after the unanimous judgement of the Court of Appeal that INEC finally complied with the Supreme Court judgement, which enforcement was affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
Chief Victor Oye and Mr Sly Ezeonwuka continued to the Supreme Court to challenge the judgement of the Court of Appeal.
On November 4, 2024 a five-man panel of judges of the Supreme Court heard the suits and motion presented to it. The apex court reserved judgment on a date to be communicated to all parties.
Delivering judgement, Justice Adah held that the earlier judgment on the appeal marked: SC/CV/687/2021, delivered on Oct. 14, 2021, which was corrected on March 24, 2023, and on which Njoku purportedly paraded to lay claim to APGA leadership, did not confer on him any enforceable rights.
He held that in the 2021 judgment, only declaratory reliefs were granted, which were not executory. He also held that there was no order or orders in the 2021 judgment to be executed.
Justice Adah noted that in the earlier judgment, the Supreme Court particularly held that issue of party’s leadership or who becomes the chairman of a political party was internal affairs of a political party and was not justiciable, adding that it was wrong for Njoku to have gone before the lower court to seek enforcement of a judgement that had nothing to be enforced as no executory reliefs were granted.
Justice Adah, who blasted the judges of the trial court and the Court of Appeal, who declared Njoku chairman of APGA then proceeded to set aside the judgement delivered by the Court of Appeal in Abuja on June 28, 2024, affirming the judgment of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which had declared Njoku chairman of APGA.
The judgment in both appeals were applied to the third appeal, relating to the same issue of APGA leadership.
The apex court, therefore, awarded N20 million on each appeal against two members of Njoku’s faction (who are listed as 1st and 2nd respondents), bringing the total cost awarded in the three appeals to N60 million.
THEWILL recalls that Njoku’s faction had argued that he emerged the party’s National Chairman at a convention that was held in Owerri, Imo state capital, six years ago. But the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party alongside erstwhile Chairman, Victor Ume, voted against the outcome of the Imo convention, arguing that it lacked the authority of stakeholders. That disagreement plunged the party into a long-drawn crisis, especially after another convention held on June 1, 2023 in Awka, the Anambra state capital and attended by Governor Charles Soludo as leader of the party and Umeh’s led NEC, produced 28-year old Ezeokenwa.
In July 2024, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognised Njoku as the national chairman. The electoral body said it relied on a court order to do so.
Reacting to the judgements, victorious Ezeokenwa commended the judiciary for effectively putting an end to the leadership dispute in the party and affirming him as the National Chairman of the party.
He said that with its erudite judgements, given on Wednesday, the court had once again proved that “it is indeed, the hope of the common man. We should not always be saying bad things against the judiciary. Today, I am very proud of our judiciary as the last hope of the common man. Like I have always said, our judiciary will always come through to save our nation when the need arises.
“That is what it has done today with the erudite judgements delivered today by the Supreme Court concerning the leadership of our party.
“Like our lead counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN said, what ought not to have taken place was created and has been dragged up to the Supreme Court.
‘It is unfortunate. Money has been spent and the party’s structures destabilised just because of someone’s selfish and inordinate ambition. The judgements today have affirmed the convention that brought us to office and that we are in charge of the running of the party’s affairs.
“So, there is no longer speculation or doubt about the actual leadership of APGA. By the judgements, I, Barrister Sly Ezeokenwa have been affirmed as the Chairman of APGA,” he said.
It is unclear whether this legal conclusion will put an end to the endless crisis in the party. Hours before the apex court ruling, founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said that the party had petitioned the Nigeria Judicial Council to discipline Justice Omotosho for re-interpreting a previous apex court ruling affirming Njoku’s leadership.
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