President Bola Tinubu and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, have been urged to prevail on the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu to comply with a Supreme Court judgment recognizing Edozie Njoku as the authentic national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, January 24, Njoku wondered why the INEC would choose to ignore court orders and take sides in a dispute involving members of a political party, which the highest court in the land has since resolved.
He said: “It is not just that the Chairman of INEC is not obeying a Supreme Court judgment delivered on March 24, 2023; INEC has also disobeyed an injunction and an order of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Bwari, to recognize me as the National Chairman of APGA.
“Instead of INEC to obey the enforcement judgment of the High Court or appeal same, he and Victor Oye rushed and got a stay of a committal judgment given against them for refusing to obey the earlier judgments of both the Supreme Court and the High Court of the FCT.
“The court had given them a 14-day grace period to purge themselves of contempt. The court has come out to say that the INEC chairman is in contempt of court and Victor Oye, who submitted the names and held a congress and convention, is also in contempt.
“But that is not our problem. We are calling on Nigerians, we are calling on President Bola Tinubu, and also calling on the Attorney General of the Federation to look into the issue, why is it that a parastatal can get a stay from the Court of Appeal, on a committal judgment that already had been given?
“Prof Mahmood Yakubu and Oye are relying on the stay to flout and disobey a direct order of the court.
“We are therefore calling on every well-meaning Nigerian to appeal to the INEC Chairman to obey a valid order of the court.”
He assured members that despite the uncooperative attitude of the INEC chairman, his party was ready to participate in the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states.
Njoku said: “By virtue of the November 9, 2023 committal judgment on Prof. Yakubu Mahmood by the FCT High Court in Bwari, for not recognizing the executives of our party that emerged from the Owerri Convention of May 31, 2019, we remain the legitimate executives of the party.
“We want to urge the people of Edo and Ondo states that APGA is a party that has a lot to offer them, irrespective of any setbacks that we may have been through as a party.
“I want to assure all the governorship aspirants from Edo and Ondo states that have been calling to express their willingness to contest on our party platform that they should rest assured that a free, fair and transparent primary which has remained elusive to others will be made the cardinal virtue and practice in APGA.”
The Supreme Court had on March 24, 2023, in a judgment on an appeal marked SC/687/21, affirmed Njoku, as the Chairman of APGA.
The apex court pronouncement followed an application by Chief Njoku, in which he sought the regularization of the amended judgment of Justice Mary Peter Odili (rtd) delivered on May 9, 2022.
Njoku’s motion followed a letter from the Supreme Court to him on January 19, 2023, in which the court addressed him as the National Chairman of APGA and advised him to approach the court by way of a motion to correct the typographical slip.
The slip which the Supreme Court corrected, restored Njoku as the actual national chairman of APGA, which was wrongfully removed by a Jigawa High Court in Suit No: JDU/022/2021 between Alhaji Garba Aliyu and Chief Jude Okeke & 2 Ors.
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In a lead Judgment, Justice Garba Lawal held that it was Chief Njoku who was wrongly removed at Jigawa without being joined as a party, and held that his application was meritorious and consequently granted the same as prayed.
Following the apex court judgment, two national officers of APGA, Otumba Camaru Ogidan, and Alhaji Rabiu Mustapha, approached a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Bwari to enforce the judgment of the Supreme Court due to INEC’s refusal to recognize Chief Njoku.
Justice Mohammed Madugu of the High Court of the FCT, in a judgment on June 6, 2023, ordered INEC and Chief Victor Oye to obey the court order by recognizing Chief Njoku as APGA national chairman.
On November 9, 2023, Justice Madugu held that Prof Yakubu and Oye were in contempt of court by refusing to obey valid court orders.