Supreme Court reverses ‘accidental slip’, affirms Njoku as APGA National Chairman

The Supreme Court has affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in a judgement delivered on Friday.

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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In the application, Njoku had noted that the Supreme Court had in a letter it wrote to him on January 19, wherein it addressed him as the National Chairman of APGA, the apex court asked him to approach it by way of a motion to regularize the said judgement.

Relying on Order 8 Rule 16 of the Supreme Court Rules, Njoku prayed the court to correct the said error in the lead judgment it delivered on October 14, 2021, in an appeal that was presided over by Justice Mary Peter-Odili .

He had specifically urged the apex court to correct an accidental slip at Page 13, lines 3 to 4 of its judgment, where instead of writing the name of ‘Edozie Njoku’ who was unlawfully removed from his position as the person that was validly elected as National Chairman of APGA at the convention the party held at Owerri in 2019, mistakenly inserted the name of Victor Oye, who was not a party in the substantive suit that gave rise to the appeal.

In reaching the ruling, the apex court held that there was merit in the application and granted Njoku’s prayers.

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