Supreme Court Didn’t Sack Me as APGA Chairman, Oye Claims

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Oye, has said that the Supreme Court did not sack him from his position.
He described the claim by one Chief Edozie Njoku that the Supreme Court delivered a judgment on Friday removing the leadership of APGA as nothing but a baseless and unfounded falsehood that the public should disregard.

Njoku had claimed that the Supreme Court met on Friday and corrected its earlier judgment and recognised him as APGA national chairman in place of Oye.
However, Oye who reacted to the fresh claim by Njoku dismissed it as a total falsehood.
He said what the apex court did was merely “to correct a clerical error.”

According to him, “the claim that the Supreme Court delivered any judgment (on) 24/3/2023 affecting the leadership of APGA is nothing short of a baseless and unfounded falsehood which must be roundly condemned and retracted by various media platforms that have shared the unfortunate news.”
Oye explained that the application which the apex court heard on February 20, 2023, and brought by Edozie Njoku was merely to correct a typographical error contained in the lead judgment delivered by Justice Mary Odili (rtd) on October 14, 2021.

Oye stated that he approached the Court of Appeal, Kano Division, to challenge the judgment which affirmed the factional national convention of APGA allegedly held in Owerri, Imo State, to it set aside.
“Consequent upon the grant of application for joinder, the Court of Appeal, Kano division in a unanimous judgment delivered on 10th of August, 2021 allowed the appeal of Victor Oye and set aside the judgment of Jigawa High Court,” he said.

Oye stated that the decision of the Court of Appeal, Kano Division was predicated on an earlier judgment of a high court of Anambra State which had earlier upheld the national convention of APGA held in Awka, Anambra State on May 31, 2019.
“It is interesting to note that the Supreme Court while upholding the finding of the Court of Appeal, Kano division that the Jigawa High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the original suit filed by one Alhaji Garba Aliyu, went on to affirm all the findings made by the Court of Appeal, Kano division.
“It’s, therefore, most bemusing and smacks of deliberate mischief for anyone to remotely contemplate that the Supreme Court delivered another judgment on March 24, 2023.

“Indeed, the allusion to Edozie Njoku in the body of the corrected judgment stems from the facts of the case as filed by Alhaji Garba Aliyu in the High Court of Jigawa wherein it was alleged that Chief Edozie Njoku was suspended by the NEC of APGA.

“Effectively, the correction made by the Supreme Court in its said ruling was to the effect that the issue of whether Edozie Njoku was purportedly suspended or not (a fact alleged in the originating summons filed at Jigawa High Court) is within the internal affairs of a political party and therefore non-justiciable.

Oye said it was on the above basis that the Supreme Court decided that the Jigawa High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit and deliver the judgment it delivered,” he contended.

Oye said the Nigerian public should therefore disregard Edozie Njoku’s claim, insisting that the Supreme Court has never affirmed him (Njoku) as the National Chairman of APGA.