Justice James Omotosho of a Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday affirmed Mr Victor Oye as the validly elected National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Justice James Omotosho, affirmed Oye’s chairmanship on the grounds that the judgments of the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, clearly showed that Oye was the authentic National Chairman of the party.
According to the court, Mr
Edozie Njoku who had been laying claims to the office was only seeking to reap where he did not sow.
The judge condemned the actions of counsel to the plaintiff, Mr C. N. Nwagbo for deliberately misleading the court and causing unnecessary confusion that wasted Judicial time of the court.
Justice Omotosho berated Nwagbo for failing to act as a minister in the temple of justice adding that his conduct was unbecoming of a legal practitioner of his status.
The judge said that the reliefs sought by the plaintiff in the suit could not be granted since they had no grounds upon which to stand.
The plaintiff, Mr Chekwas Okorie had approached the court asking the court to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) to recognize the names sent to it by Mr Edozie Njoku as the candidates of the party in the 2023 general elections.
Okorie had claimed that he was the presidential candidate of APGA and that INEC had refused to give his Chairman, Njoku access to upload his name on its portal as the APGA presidential candidate.
The judge reasoned that since the courts had decided that Oye, and not Njoku was the legitimate National Chairman of the party, Njoku had no legal backing to send names of candidates to the commission.
Speaking to newsmen, Mr Victor Aguzi, counsel to one of the defendants, Prof. Peter Umeadi, who contested the position of president on the platform of APGA said the judgment had brought sanity to APGA.
“The judgment has clarified that the judgment of the Supreme Court of March 24 did not in anyway affect the substance of the judgment delivered on Oct. 14, 2021 which affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kano division which validated the national championship of Oye.”
Meanwhile, the court awarded N200,000 cost in favour of Umeadi and against Okorie.
Aguzi had asked for N20 million cost for his client on the grounds that the suit distracted his client and prevented him from concentrating on his campaign which made him lose the election.
Credit: This Day