Pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Chekwas Okorie examines the protracted crisis in the party and contends that unless discipline is restored, the platform would continue to flounder.
The entire members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Nigeria and abroad, especially the good people of Anambra State, will bear out that the leadership of our great party under Chief Edozie Njoku as National Chairman, has repeatedly offered Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor of Anambra State extended latitude to halt his continued sponsorship of crisis in APGA. I do not wish to bore you with the plethora of anti-party activities perpetrated and sponsored by the only governor produced on the platform of our party in the present dispensation. Highly respected and very senior clergymen in Anambra State, traditional rulers, association of town union presidents-general, several Anambra State business and intellectual elite have at various times appealed to Governor Soludo to cease his unprovoked destabilizing war against the survival of the Party that provided him with the singular opportunity to realize his long elusive life time desire to become the governor of Anambra State, after two previous failed attempts.
Ins spite of all entreaties to Gov. Soludo to give peace a chance to allow APGA to live out its full potential and promise, he remained recalcitrant and carried on like a bull in the China shop.
When the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered an unambiguous and decisive judgment on the APGA leadership dispute, which affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA after correcting what Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili (Justice of the Supreme Court rtd) in an elucidating letter referred to as a “trajectory of errors” identified in the earlier judgment the Court delivered on 14th October, 2021 in the same suit, every reasonable Nigerian expected that the protracted leadership dispute in APGA would cease finally following the general rule that there must be an end to litigation. The authentic National Chairman of APGA, Chief Edozie Njoku immediately extended his hand of fellowship to Gov Soludo and his followers repeatedly to join hands with the leadership of our great party to rebuild it. Similarly, I was unrelenting in appealing to Gov Soludo to use his good offices to promote peace and reconciliation in APGA. I intervened in my capacity as the founder and vision bearer of this great party of immense historical importance in Nigeria.
APGA is the first Igbo contribution to Nigeria’s political party system since 1923 (about 101 years ago).
Gov. Soludo and his goons refused to accept the finality of the Supreme Court judgment. Two members of the National Working Committee of the Party had to approach the FCT High Court 40 in Bwari to seek the enforcement of the Supreme Court judgment as provided by the relevant provision of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, that any court of record below has the mandate to enforce the judgment of the Supreme Court. Notwithstanding all the stumbling blocks put on the part of justice, the trial court delivered a landmark judgment on the 6th of June, 2023, whereupon the court affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA and validated the National Convention of the Party held at Owerri, Imo State, on the 31st of May, 2019. True to character Gov. Soludo’s faction of APGA proceeded to the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment of the trial court. On June 28, 2024, the Court of Appeal, in a crushing and devastating judgment, resolved all the 10 grounds of appeal formulated by Victor Oye, the Appellant in the Soludo sponsored appeal in favor of APGA and dismissed the appeal in a unanimous judgment of three erudite Justices of the Court.
Read Also: APGA to INEC: Don’t fuel party’s crisis
At this point, we resumed our appeal to Gov. Soludo to cease fire and embrace peace in his political interest and in the interest of the Party. In order to underscore our genuine and sincere interest in the peace process, Chief Edozie Njoku, the National Chairman of APGA, honored Gov. Soludo’s invitation to his Abuja residence. Needless to say, the meeting that lasted for nearly 3 long hours was more of a monologue that turned out to be Chief Edozie’s waste of valuable time that could have been deployed to something more productive. What followed was yet another frivolous suit slammed on INEC and Chief Edozie Njoku at a Federal High Court by one Mr. Sly Ezeonwuka, a Special Assistant to Gov. Soludo who claims to have been elected as the National Chairman of APGA in an illegal convention that was nullified by the judgement of the FCT High Court referred to above which was upheld by the Court of Appeal. The same INEC that over indulged the Soludo faction for nearly two years is now being disparaged by very beneficiaries of INEC protection for the simple reason that the Commission has come to terms with reality and chose to comply with the unambiguous judgment of the Supreme Court which was enforced by a trial court and affirmed by the Court of Appeal. Upon being served the INEC counter-affidavit to their stupid suit, they knew that their suit was dead on arrival. Their next line of action was to seize the opportunity of filing a motion at the Court of Appeal for leave of court to appeal to the Supreme Court to mischievously include three other reliefs, which are tantamount to reopening a suit the Court of Appeal has dismissed. Gov. Soludo thinks that his unfettered access to the common patrimony of the good people of Anambra State grants him the assurance that the Court of Appeal can easily be compromised. The audacity of sponsoring Chief Victor Oye to embark on this latest misadventure at the Court of Appeal is incredible. A contemnor who has blatantly refused to purge himself of contempt is unashamedly before the Court of Appeal to protect his being sentenced for contempt of valid orders of a court of competent jurisdiction. Nigerians are watching to see whether the appellate court will stand on the side of a contemnor or protect the sanctity of the Nigerian judiciary and rule of law.
It has become abundantly clear to all discerning Nigerians that Gov Soludo is determined as he threatened, to sacrifice APGA rather than submit to Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of our great Party.
The continued survival of APGA in spite of all its vicissitudes, is by the special grace of God. APGA is a product of three attempts for registration at INEC in 1996, 1998, and 2002. APGA is a spirit and therefore indestructible. APGA will outlive all of us, including Prof Chukwuma Soludo.
Nobody born of a woman can prevent APGA from recovering its rightful place in Nigeria’s political space as the only political party in Nigeria anchored on genuine progressive ideology. Nobody born of a woman can be an undertaker to bury APGA as Prof. Soludo boasted in his tantrums and hallucinations.
In conclusion, it is on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, that I advise the National Working Committee (NWC) of APGA to activate without delay the Party’s disciplinary machinery to sanction all those who may be found guilty of anti-party activities and whose actions and utterances have brought the Party to public ridicule and shame. I strongly advise that the Party’s disciplinary measures must include but not limited to Prof Chukwuma Soludo. The sanctity of the supremacy of the political party in party democracies all over the world must be sustained and maintained.
