Ozo Victor Ikechukwu Oye, the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), reportedly held a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Awka, the Anambra State capital, in blatant disobedience of a Federal High Court injunction prohibiting him from doing so.
On Wednesday, May 10, 2023, the Federal Capital Territory High Court 40 sitting in Bwari, Abuja, ordered Chief Oye to stop presenting himself as the party’s National Chairman.
The court further barred him from organizing any gatherings, meetings, Congresses, or conventions in the name of the APGA NEC or NWC, pronouncing such congresses and conventions null and void.
The order came in response to a Supreme Court ruling on March 24, 2023, which confirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the party’s legitimate chairman.
The decision put an end to the four-year-long war for APGA’s soul.
While reading the unanimous decision of the full panelists, Justice Garba Lawal ordered that Oye’s name be removed from the case with file number SC/CV/687/2021, following page 13 of Chief Njoku’s application, and be replaced with “Chief Edozie Njoku” as National Chairman of APGA.
However, in total and blatant disregard for the Supreme Court, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in a press release issued on May 9 by its National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye Esq., insisted that Oye is the APGA National Chairman.
INEC has refused to recognize Edozie Njoku as the genuine APGA National Chairman, instead asserting that Chief Oye is the party’s National Chairman.
Oye behaved with impunity, disobeying a court of competent jurisdiction and holding an NEC meeting in Awka, armed and emboldened by INEC support.
Notably, APGA leaders avoided the “kangaroo” meeting, which was held on Friday at the Cardinal International Hotel in Awka in defiance of a court injunction.
Pictures from the alleged NEC meeting showed that the APGA faithful had left Oye in response to the court rulings that dismissed him.
The Governor of the State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, among others, boycotted the NEC meeting in protest of the court judgments that acknowledged Edozie Njoku as the real National Chairman of the APGA.
