Supreme Court affirms Ezeokenwa APGA national chairman

The Supreme Court has affirmed Sly Ezeokenwa as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, putting to an end the party’s leadership dispute.

In two unanimous judgments on Wednesday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that Edozie Njoku wrongly laid claims to the APGA chairmanship.

In the judgment read by Justice Stephen Adah, the panel held that in its 2021 judgment, only declaratory reliefs were granted and the reliefs are not executory.

He added that there was no order or orders in the 2021 judgment to be executed.

The apex court noted that in its earlier judgment, it held that the issue of party leadership or who becomes the chairman of a political party is an internal affair to the party.

Justice Adah held that it was wrong for Njoku to have gone before the lower court to seek enforcement in a judgment that had nothing to be enforced as no executory reliefs were granted.

Justice Adah, then advised judges of the lower courts to be cautious, noting that the judges of the trial court and the Court of Appeal, who declared Njoku as the APGA chairman were wrong to have heard his (Njoku’s) suit.

He proceeded to set aside the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal in Abuja on June 28, 2024, which affirmed the judgment of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, in Abuja, declaring Njoku as the APGA chairman.

The judgment in both appeals was applied to the third appeal, relating to the same issue of APGA leadership.

However. the Supreme Court held that its earlier judgment in the appeal marked: SC/CV/687/2021, delivered on October 14, 2021, which was corrected on March 24, 2023, and on which Njoku purportedly relied to lay claim to the party’s chairmanship, did not confer on him any enforceable rights.

The court awarded N20 million on each appeal against two members of the Njoku-led faction — who are listed as the first and second respondents, bringing the total cost awarded in the three appeals to N60m.

Reacting to the judgments, Ezeokenwa commended the judiciary for effectively putting an end to the leadership dispute in the party and affirming him as the chairman.

He noted that with its erudite judgments, the court has, once again, proved that it is indeed, the hope of the common man.

Ezeokenwa said, “We should not always be saying bad things against the judiciary. Today, I am very proud of our judiciary as the last hope of the common man.

“As I have always said, our judiciary will always come through to save our nation when the need arises. That is what it has done today with the erudite judgments delivered today by the Supreme Court concerning the leadership of our party.

“As our lead counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) said, what ought not to have taken place was created and has been dragged up to the Supreme Court. It is unfortunate. Money has been expended and the party’s  structures destabilised just because of someone’s selfish and inordinate ambition.”