The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is currently grappling with new challenges over the candidates it fielded for the 2023 general elections. The recent clarifications released by the Supreme Court on its October 14, 2021, judgment, have thrown the party into a frenzy of reconsideration.
The Jigawa High Court had ruled that the purported suspension of Chief Edozie Njoku and Jude Okeke’s appointment as his replacement in acting capacity as the party’s national chairman was in order.
But affronted by the judgment, which he described as a miscarriage of justice, Oye, supported and activated by the then Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano, filed an appealed at the Court of Appeal, Kano. The appeal succeeded, describing the Jigawa State High Court sitting as lacking in territorial jurisdiction.
Yet, insisting that Oye was not a party to the matter, Jude Okeke filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, which not only upturned the Kano Appeal Court ruling, but also declared that the removal of Chief Edozie Njoku was not justiciable. Nonetheless, citing the clerical error that documented his name as the 2nd respondent, Oye went away with the erroneous impression that the apex court had validated his claim to the office of the national chairman.
Having noticed the glaring mistake, Chief Edozie Njoku applied for a review and consequent correction to avert the unintended judicial murder of the innocent.
The four Justices on the Supreme Court panel, namely, Justices, K. M. O. Kekere-Ekun, Mohammaed Lawal Garba, Ibrahim Mohammed Saulawa and Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, reflected the correction in their separate clarifications.
But instead of INEC acting upon the new information and enrolled order, the commission prevaricated and allowed Oye, instead of Njoku, to upload the list of candidates that emerged from his primaries as APGA candidates for the 2023 poll. To make matters more confusing, Dr. Festus Akande, the Director of Media, Press and Information of the Supreme Court, released a statement denying that all the CTCs (Certified True Copies) of the amended judgment issued to Chief Edozie Njoku.
