Court confirms Oye as lawful nat’l chairman of APGA

Chief Victor Oye was recognized as the legitimate National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on Tuesday by the Federal High Court in Abuja.

In a ruling, Justice James Omotoso stated that it was evident from rulings by the Federal High Court, Court of Appeals, and later Supreme Court that Oye was the rightful National Chairman of the party.

According to Justice Omotoso, Edozie Njoku was an intrusive party who was trying to reap what he had not sown in the lawsuit.

The court criticized CN Nwagwu, a lawyer, for intentionally misleading the court and creating unneeded confusion that drained the court’s judicial resources.

Nwagwu, according to Justice Omotoso, failed to function as a minister in the temple of justice, and his behavior was improper for a lawyer of his standing.

With the ruling, the court dismissed Njoku, who had been vying for the position of political party chairman.

This ruling is at variance with a Supreme Court’s ruling which affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in a judgement delivered on Friday.

READ ALSO: Funding bane of Nigeria’s political parties,’ says APGA chairman, Oye

In a unanimous decision by a five-man panel of justices, the apex court admitted that in a earlier ruling it delivered in 2021, it erroneously wrote the name of Chief Victor Oye as the chairman of the party.

In the lead ruling delivered by Justice Mohammed Lawal, the court held that it had the power to review its judgement and correct such “accidental slip or error”, when brought to its attention.

The court therefore, ordered that the aspect of the judgement where Oye’s name was reflected as the national chairman of the party be expunged, while Njoku’s name should be replaced instead.

The ruling followed a motion that was brought before the court by Njoku in an application he filed through his lawyers led by Chike Onyemenam, SAN, urging the apex court to correct a typographical error in its judgement which wrongly handed the leadership of the party to Oye.

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