…as curious letter purportedly authored by retired Supreme Court Justice, Mary Odili, sacks the party’s national executive.
By Ife Osemedua
365Daily– Trepidation now reigns supreme in the camps of candidates put forward by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for various elective offices in the 2023 general elections.
This follows the possibility of having the current national executive of the party swept away in the aftermath of recent disclosures that one Chief Edozie Njoku is the rightful occupant of the chairmanship seat of the party.
Should this position subsist, the candidature of all APGA candidates – presidential, governorship, national and state assemblies – would be a nullity, the Edozie Njoku faction having earlier submitted the names of different sets of candidates.
Mrs Odili, in a November 7, 2022 letter addressed to Njoku, had sought to clarify the true leadership of the party.
The recently retired Supreme Court justice had in the letter purportedly made a correction in her panel’s judgement of October, 2021, wherein the name of embattled APGA national chairman, Victor Oye, was erroneously inserted instead of Edozie Njoku.
Justice Odili: “It is to be placed on record that I corrected the mistake by replacing Oye’s name with Njoku on paragraph 13 of the October 14, 2021 judgement.
” The correction was made having cognisance that on the day of delivery of the judgement, by slip of the pen or tongue, the name of Oye was brought in. This error was pointed out to me by other members of the panel, who reminded me that Oye was not a party to the appeal or the proceedings which emanated from the Jigawa State High Court.”
Speaking against the background of the latest development, Njoku warned that any attempt to sidestep a Supreme Court judgement would mean jeopardising the party’s chances in the forthcoming elections.
Dismissing as ridiculous, claims that he may have forged Justice Odili’s letter, Njoku dared anyone to arrest him for forgery.
“We should now say Chief Victor Oye, you’ve run a good race. Hang up your boots, please,” Njoku counselled.
But in a swift reaction, the Oye faction stated that it had petitioned relevant law enforcement agencies, alleging forgery against Njoku.
In a statement signed by Mr. Tex Okechukwu, national publicity secretary, the party stated: “The attention of our great party, APGA, has been drawn to a trending propaganda on social media wherein the Supreme Court was quoted to have purportedly reaffirmed Mr. Edozie Njoku as the illusory national chairman of our great party, APGA.”
While the ding dong persist, many wonder if anyone would go to the extent of forging a letter by a Supreme Court justice, serving or not.
For now, fear continues to swirl round the campaigns of all APGA candidates across the country.