The Jude Okeke-led faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has rejected the judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting in Kano on the leadership crisis rocking the party.
APGA has been engulfed in intra-party crisis, which has birthed factions, one led by Victor Oye and the other by Jude Okeke.
While Oye’s camp has Prof Charles Soludo as its governorship candidate for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, the faction led by Okeke produced Chukwuma Umeoji.
The Appeal Court in Kano, on Tuesday, set aside the judgment of a Jigawa State High Court, which had earlier declared Jude Okeke and Chukwuma Umeoji as the party’s national chairman and Anambra governorship candidate respectively.
The Okeke camp, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Ikechukwu Chukwunyere, said it has instructed its lawyers to immediately commence all necessary steps to appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court.
Chukwunyere said the Appeal Court judgement was a mere temporary setback, which would be set aside by the Supreme Court as quickly and easily as possible.
“The Hon. Chukwuma Umeoji campaign will therefore continue unhindered pending the judgment of the Supreme Court where victory is assured. All supporters and party members are therefore urged to remain peaceful and law abiding while maintaining the confidence level as there is nothing that can stop an idea whose time has come,” Chukwunyere said.
The faction insisted that from its legal team’s reports, the Special Panel of the Court of Appeal turned law upside down by sitting on appeal over its earlier ruling and setting that ruling aside without consequential justice.
“How could the Panel rule on the 30th of July, 2021 that the matter before it was a pre-election matter thereby struck out the Appeal by Chief Edozie Njoku filed on the 22nd July, 2021 that it was filed out of time and then come today to now rule that the case is no longer a pre-election matter just to allow Victor Oye’s appeal that was filed on the 30th July, 2021.
“The Supreme Court will gladly remind the Court of Appeal that consistency in its ruling is one of the core pillars of our judicial system and that a Court cannot sit on appeal over itself nor arbitrarily over rule itself.
“The Supreme Court being the highest Court in the land will indeed have an opportunity to do substantial justice and restore the ticket of Hon. Chukwuma Umeoji as the APGA governorship candidate and High Chief Jude Okeke as the National Chairman of the Party,” he added.
