Founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chekwas Okorie, in this interview with LAWRENCE NJOKU, faults the latest Supreme Court’s ruling, which has for the second time in 21 months, conferred leadership of the party on two major combatants, and tacitly returned its control to Governor Chukwuma Soludo.
Last week’s judgment of the Supreme Court has removed the control of the APGA from Edozie Njoku, where you serve as the BoT Chairman. What does that mean for the party?
It was a very strange judgment that will continue to be queried by sound legal minds. While I disagree with it in all totality, I accepted it because the Supreme Court is the final court of the land. So, there is nothing anybody could do about it. But looking at that judgment, it defies all logic. This is a court that gave a judgment more than a year ago (24th March 2023) and made it clear in its rulings that Edozien Njoku, was the chairman of the party whose purported removal was not justiciable.
The person who read the lead judgment was Justice Lawal Garuba, who incidentally chaired this panel that gave this unexplainable judgment while the current Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere–Ekun, was the chairman of the panel at the time. In her contributory judgment, she was very definite that the convention of APGA was held at Owerri and that everything about APGA started at Owerri. She said that Chief Victor Oye, had nothing whatsoever to do in that convention. In the lead judgment, they were also definite that Oye had nothing to do with that convention. That it was Edozie Njoku.
Now, after that judgment, INEC refused to obey it and began to indulge Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. We saw that relationship going on and went to the trial court as provided by the constitution of the country for enforcement and that judgment was enforced. They were dissatisfied; they went to the Court of Appeal. Three justices of the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment of the lower court and dismissed their appeal.
They now went to the Supreme Court. Now, the Supreme Court, in giving this last judgment, looked at the judgment they gave more than a year ago as not enforceable; that the federal high court had no jurisdiction in enforcing it. It even went further to say that the trial court misinterpreted their judgment and that the Court of Appeal made up of three justices also misinterpreted the judgment. The question an ordinary person will ask is how is a trained judge unable to understand the judgment of the Supreme Court?
The judgment was not written in Swahili. It was written in English. The question is: if the judgment the Supreme Court gave is unenforceable, who did the judgment benefit since they said Oye had nothing to do with the convention that brought up Edozie Njoku? So, how can the same court turn around a year after to say that their own judgment did not benefit anybody? Can the Supreme Court make an unambiguous judgment that no other person can understand except themselves? All these things are intertwined in that controversial judgment. But we will accept it because it is the final court of the land. We give up the struggle. Things like this have happened in this country before and it is not good for our system.
Some years ago, when former President Muhammadu Buhari had his election petition against former President Umaru Yar’Adua, we went to the Court of Appeal for the judgment. The lead judgment lasted for less than one hour but the minority judgment lasted for over four hours. We were wondering why, and information came that the minority judgment was intended to be the lead judgment, which led the Judge who was assigned to read it to go the extra mile for an extensive research to enable him give a judgment that will stand a test of time but overnight, it was now told that the judgment will be a minority judgment if he insisted on reading it. He insisted he must read it. We sat in court for over five hours. He refused to abridge that judgment and it became controversial at that time. When you read that minority judgment, you will know where the justice was.
Those who benefitted from the judgment rewarded the judges at the end of the day. All these things happened in this country. It is unfortunate that the last court of the land will act in a manner that is less than satisfactory and many Nigerians have responded to the shocking news of this judgment.
If Edozie Njoku had won all these cases from the High Court to the Court of Appeal, and now the Supreme Court reversed itself to say that a judgment they gave a year after did not benefit anybody but this time around, it benefitted somebody, it is difficult for somebody to understand it.
The attitude of Chief Edozie Njoku and me is to be law abiding and stop further litigation in spite of our reservations. That is the way we have taken it. It is a pyrrhic victory for Prof. Soludo in that whatever he did to end this is only temporary. What he has achieved is perhaps to earn an automatic ticket to run for governorship election next year. The election is in November next year. Perhaps, this is what he wanted when he never accepted reconciliation. Now that he has succeeded, APGA is divided and if by 2025, he is not able to make it, would that have justified all the exposure of the resources of the government in fighting this gruesome battle for the control of the party? The real battle is in 2027 and APGA under Soludo’s control can only have meaning if Soludo wins his re-election. He must win his election for this to be meaningful.
You think this latest judgment of the Supreme Court was highly influenced?
That is a question that will be answered in due course. Time on its own will provide a suitable answer to their action. What they did defied logic. For the Supreme Court’s second judgment on a matter it had given an earlier judgment, a judgment that was gazetted to say that it was unenforceable is most unimaginable. If you have a judgment that you announced a beneficiary and later came back to say that the judgment was not enforceable, it is most strange. This is the first time I am hearing that a Supreme Court will give a judgment that is of no benefit to any of the parties.
The issue in contention was the convention of the party held in 2019. Victor Oye had a convention at Awka, and Edozie Njoku had his own at Owerri where he was elected the same day. That was on 31 May 2019 and the Supreme Court looked at the issue and said that Njoku was the authentic chairman. How can we now return to the same court a year after to annual its own judgment? That is what anybody who knows better should worry about. It means anybody can wake up one day to challenge an existing judgment of the Supreme Court and get it reviewed in his favour. We have accepted this judgment, not because it is justice but because it was given by the highest court in the land.
This is the second time you have been pushed to the receiving end since you registered APGA several years ago. Are you going to quit the party like you did the other time?
Let me start by saying that my search for APGA took me seven years of two attempts before we succeeded at the third attempt. There is nothing that will make me entirely abandon APGA or work against APGA because that is my place in history. There is no court that can review my founding of APGA and say I am no longer the founder of APGA. That one is permanent. It is a fact of our political history and APGA is the first political party that was founded by an Igbo man.
So, it gives me a special place in political history. Now, this has happened, there is nothing like a former founder. So, I remain the founder and will still have my eye on the party no matter where I am. Those who have remained loyal to me in spite of all my travails have called me since this thing broke out, and I have said to them that I must continue to provide direction. For as long as I am still strong and mentally alert, I will continue to serve. APGA was designed to promote all that a political party can promote.
We are restructuring. We have resource control; we have self-determination and ethnic nationalities, which are critical to the unity of this country. We have citizenship rights and all sorts of progressive underpinnings are enshrined in the party constitution. These are things I hold dear in my heart and continue to pursue wherever I find myself. There is no way anybody will retire me from politics while I am still alive. It is not possible.
I have never used any position that I had occupied to shortchange my people. So, there is nothing that will make me feel disappointed. I only feel for Professor Soludo because he has created a huge challenge for himself. He has defied the reconciliation and deployed more energy and resources to do what he had done now. The challenge facing him is to win the Anambra election in November. I will not work against him. I will stand and watch and if God gives us life, we will rebuild APGA.
Are you saying that even if Soludo invites you to work with him to rebuild APGA you will not go?
No, it cannot be like that. The reason I left APGA the other time is because of this same thing that happened. Justice was then cornered and Victor Umeh, who was our Treasurer (that never went to any convention because a Treasurer was not in the line of succession of any organisation) was recognised by INEC as chairman of the party. So, I said I cannot sit here and accept Victor Umeh as my chairman. I moved and founded the UPP to pursue the same objective.
The same thing is repeating itself. I cannot accept the leadership that has been imposed on APGA. But I thank God that APGA is still alive. The truth is that despite all the machinations that have confined APGA in one state for 22 years, it is still the oldest surviving party in Nigeria. It is something to be grateful to God for.
I would like to see APGA outlive all of us and continue to make contributions. I will also like to see APGA go back to its original path and position. But as for bringing my support to the imposition, that is unacceptable to me, and will run against my principles. I will not do that. This is because there is nothing I did not do to get Soludo to the negotiating table. He said he would use everything available to him as governor to ensure that Edozie Njoku is not National Chairman.
Let us say he has succeeded but it is a pyrrhic victory because November next year will determine if his gamble has worked or not. If it works, he will be testing another four years, which is not too far and still the party will remain. He has fragmented APGA. The way he has cornered the judgment may not be the way he will corner the Anambra election. He will still leave the party and move on.
