By our correspondent
The leadership of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria, (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, to act fast and save the party and the country’s judiciary from a looming embarrassment, following the decision of the police to re arraign it’s national chairman, Chief Edozie Njoku over a matter it said has already been settled by the Supreme Court
It would be recalled the APGA has been engulfed in a lingering leadership crisis, since the conduct of the party’s national elective congress at Awka and Owerri in 2021, which led to the emergence of factional National Working Committees (NWC) led by Victor Ike Oye and Edozie Njoku respectively
The leadership tussle which led to several litigations was also widened following an alleged error from the Supreme Court in it’s October 14, 2021 ruling that could have settled the matter
The Supreme Court in it’s judgement, erroneously inserted the name of Victor Oye, instead of Edozie Njoku as the recipient to the judgement following an earlier court ruling in Jigawa state.
The error has however been corrected by the Supreme Court lead Justice ⚖️ n the matter, Justice Mary Odili, before she exited the apex court in 2022
In her letter correcting the error, Justice Odili said, “It is to be placed on record that I corrected the mistake by replacing Chief Victor Oye’s name with that of Chief Edozie Njoku on paragraph 1 of page 13 of the 14th October, 2021 judgement
“The correction was made having cognizance of the fact that on the day of delivery of the judgement, being October 14, 2021, by a slip of the pen and tongue, the name of Victor Oye was brought in. This error was pointed out to me by other members of the panel who reminded me that Victor Oye was not a party to the Appeal or the proceeding which emanated from the Jigawa High Court”
According to documents obtained by our correspondent, though the Supreme Court had in a letter written to the APGA national chairman, Edozie Njoku, by the presiding Justice in the matter, Justice Mary Odili before her retirement, which corrected the error and apologized on behalf of the four other justices that handled the matter, the Chief Registrar of the Court, Hajo Sarki Bello, had insisted that there was no error in the judgement by the justices.
The Chief Registrar, in a letter to the Inspector General of Police, dated August 1, 2022, upon request for clarification and information insisted that the appeal court judgement delivered on August 10, 2021, by Hon. Justice Haruna Simon Tsamanni validated the election of Victor Oye as the national chairman of APGA, while alluding that Edozie Njoku, who was elected at the Owerri convention of the party was suspended by the APGA NEC.
Njoku has however argued that the Chief Registrar’s letter was contrary to the ruling of the Supreme Court, which has been corrected through Justice Odili’s letter
APGA expressed it’s worry that the letter by the Supreme Court Chief Registrar, which was also copied to the Independent National Electoral Commission’ (INEC) has led not only to the refusal of the electoral umpire to recognize the Edozie Njoku led NWC as the authentic leadership of APGA, but has ignited the unlawful prosecution of it’s chairman for alleged forgery of court documents
The party went further to lament that the police has amended the charges to include the secretary of Justice Mary Odili (rtd), Ogunseye Adebisi, to be charged also for forgery, with the retired justice being summoned in court as witness
Raising the alarm over the decision of Police to re arraign the APGA national chairman and Justice Odili’s secretary, as well as the summon to Odili to appear as witness in the amended matter which comes up today (Tuesday) at the Bwari division of the FCT High Court, the leadership of APGA called on the CJN to intervene and save the nation’s judiciary the embarrassment the matter could cause it.
APGA in a letter addressed to the CJN by Edozie Njoku, dated February 9, 2023, regretted that despite the letter of corrections by Justice Odili, as well as another letter by the CJN directing the party to re approach the Supreme court for further clarification on the matter, the police is still relying on the August 1, 2022 letter by the Chief Registrar as prime exhibit to amend the case to prosecute them
Njoku, who maintained that he never forged any of the documents as being wrongly peddled by the Supreme Court Registrar and Police, regretted what he described as the negative impact and implications of the Chief Registrar’s letter on him and Justice Odili’s secretary, who he noted was only doing her job, as well as all the candidates of the party who have been unlawfully displaced by INEC’s refusal to accept them following the Registrar’s letter also to the commission
“I passionately plead that you see the urgent need of writing a letter to the Inspector General of Police and to the Chairman of INEC to discard and disregard the letters written to them previously by the Chief Registrar on Suit SC/CV/167/2021. This well aide the Police to withdraw the case and the criminal charges against an innocent man and other staff of the Supreme Court
” I most humbly plead that you also see the urgent need to give us a date for SC/CV/687/2021 so that we can make our motion at the court as directed by the letter which the Chief Registrar signed on your behalf on January 19, 2023,” Njoku prayed in his letter
