By Christopher Oji
Former national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Oye, reportedly held a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party in Awka, the Anambra State capital, in clear defiance to the Federal High Court order which barred him from doing so.
The News Band had reported, last Wednesday, that the Federal Capital Territory High Court 40, in Bwari, Abuja, ordered Oye to stop parading himself as the national chairman of the party. The court also restrained him from holding any gathering, meeting, congress or convention in the name of APGA NEC or National Working Committee (NWC), declaring such congress and convention as null and void.
The order followed the Supreme Court ruling on March 24, 2023, which deleted Oye from its judgement record and affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the authentic chairman of the party. The judgement put to rest the marathon battle for the soul of APGA, which had been running for four years.
Justice Garba Lawal, while reading the unanimous judgement of the entire panelists, ordered that Oye’s name be expunged from the case with file number SC/CV/687/2021, in line with page 13 of Njoku’s application, and be replaced with “Chief Edozie Njoku” as the national chairman of APGA.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in total disregard to the Supreme Court, in a press release issued by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, on May 9, insisted that Oye was the APGA national chairman.
Armed and emboldened by INEC backing, Oye acted with impunity, disobeyed a court of competent jurisdiction, and held a NEC meeting in Awka. Notably, though, APGA stalwarts avoided the meeting, which was held on Friday against a subsisting court order at the Cardinal International Hotel, Awka.
Pictures of the purported NEC meeting indicated that APGA faithful have deserted Oye, in respect of the court judgements that sacked him. Those who boycotted the NEC meeting, in respect of the court decisions, which recognised Njoku as the authentic national chairman of APGA, include the Governor of the State, Charles Soludo.
Reacting to the development, a pro-democracy movement, Save Democracy Group, threatened to occupy Abuja over INEC’s refusal to obey the Supreme Court judgment of March 24. The group described INEC’s refusal to obey the Supreme Court judgment as a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
The group’s Director of Media, Austin Igboeche, said: “‘Considering what we went through as a nation to evolve into a democratic state, it is difficult to comprehend why Nigerians will allow INEC to plunge the country into an avoidable conflagration. What is Chief Victor Oye’s name still doing on INEC’s website, when the apex court had ordered that it be deleted?”
“One thing INEC has struggled so hard to imprint in our minds is that the institution is infallible and above the law. This obnoxious narrative is designed to sustain the impunity for which the commission has gained notoriety. But, it is up to us as a people, either to allow or stop it. This is simply our mission.
“Clearly, INEC is up to some games. This matter is no longer about Chief Njoku or APGA; the architects in this tragic drama are simply passing a message, which, if allowed to see the light of day, may bid goodbye to our cherished and valued democracy.”
Another observer, Don Nwabueze, said: “The man, Victor Oye, has foolishly boxed himself into prison. Shortly, INEC will abandon him to rot in jail, after the same commission had depleted both the Anambra State Treasury and APGA purse through him and his cohorts. Presently, all hands are crossed to see how the judiciary will treat the ‘political rascality’ Oye indulged in.”