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The Supreme Court has directed Nigeria’s electoral umpire, INEC, to act and recognise Edozie Njoku as the national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, on 24 March, said it made a mistake in a judgement it delivered in 2021, where it erroneously wrote the name of Victor Oye as APGA national chairman instead of Mr Njoku’s.
In its ruling delivered by Mohammed Lawal, the Supreme Court restated its power to review its judgement and correct such an “accidental error,” when its attention was drawn to it.
Consequently, Mr Lawal ordered the removal of Mr Oye’s name as the national chairman of APGA.
The ruling was a result of a request by Mr Njoku to have the error corrected.
He (Mr Njoku) had written INEC last week requesting it to recognise him as the party’s national chairman based on the Supreme Court judgement.
Giving effect to the ruling
A certified true copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court ruling on the APGA leadership crisis between Messrs Njoku and Oye, who is also laying claim to the office, directed INEC to accord Mr Njoku recognition as APGA national chairman.
The proof of service of the ruling dated 5 April was on a case between Jude Okeke and APGA & others, which was delivered by a five-member panel of the Supreme Court on 24 March.
A copy of the directive seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed the document was received by the Litigation and Prosecution department, INEC headquarters, Abuja, on 5 April by 3:54 p.m.
“I forward herewith for your information and necessary action, the order under the hand of the Honourable, the Chief Justice of Nigeria/Presiding Judge and the seal of the Court in respect of the above appeal.
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“I also enclose herewith the certified copy of the order and the judgment of the Court” Zainab Garba, Registrar, Litigation, Supreme Court of Nigeria, stated.
This newspaper reported that the Supreme Court had on 24 March based on a request by Mr Njoku, amended its judgment delivered by Mary Peter Odili, now a retired justice of the apex court, on 9 May 2022.
In the ruling, the Supreme Court said “It is hereby ordered that the Appeal No. SC/CV/686/2021 set out on the face of the Judgment delivered by the (apex) Court on 14th October 2021 is to be corrected and replaced with Appeal No. SC/CV/687/2021.
“That the name of “Chief Victor Oye” mentioned and set out on page 13 of the Judgement delivered by the Court on the 14th October 2021 in Appeal No. SC/CV/687/2021 be deleted and replaced with the name “Edozie Njoku” so that the sentence on page 13 would now correctly read:
“It needs to be stated at this point that the dispute being who should be the Acting National Chairman of the 1st Respondent, APGA and whether the Chairman, Edozie Njoku was validly replaced are within the confines of the internal affairs of the 1st Respondent which is not Justiciable,” the judgement said.
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