…as Soludo, others shun NEC meeting chaired by Oye
A Pro-democracy movement, Save Democracy Group, has threatened to stage a protest in Abuja, over the recognition of Victor Oye as the national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, despite a Supreme Court judgment that affirmed Edozie Njoku as the authentic chairman of the party.
It has also described the recent meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC chaired by Oye, in Awka, the Anambra State capital as a clear defiance of the Federal High Court order that barred him from convening the meeting.
It recalled that the Federal Capital Territory High Court 40 sitting in Bwari, Abuja, had on March 24, 2023, ordered Oye to stop parading himself as the National Chairman of the party.
The court also reportedly restrained him from holding any gatherings, meetings, Congresses, or conventions in the name of APGA NEC or NWC, declaring such congress and convention as null and void.
In the Supreme Court ruling, Justice Garba Lawal 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 “Edozie Njoku” as National Chairman of APGA.
However, INEC in a press statement issued by its National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye on May 9, 2023, insisted that Oye was the APGA national chairman.
Following INEC’s summation, Oye reportedly held a NEC meeting at the Cardinal International Hotel in Awka, last Friday, in Awka. But Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State and other APGA stalwarts boycotted the meeting, in respect of the supreme court ruling.
Reacting to the development, the Director of Media, Save Democracy Group, Mr. 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 Nigeria into an avoidable conflagration.
“What is Victor Oye’s name still doing on INEC’s website when the apex court had ordered that it should 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 matter is no longer about Njoku or APGA; the architects in this tragic drama are simply passing a message, which if allowed to see the light of day, may be a goodbye to our cherished and valued democracy. But, it is up to us as a people, either to allow or stop it”.
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