In what could be described as total disregard for Supreme Court Judgment, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has refused to recognize Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) more than two months after the Supreme Court Judgment.
The Supreme Court had in a Judgment delivered by Justice Mary Peter-Odili, on May 9, 2022 declared that Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA cannot be removed as National Chairman, owing to the fact that, it is not Justiciable as an internal affair of the political party.
However, the Commission is yet to enforce the court judgment which recognised Chief Njoku as the APGA Chairman.
Chief Edozie Njoku in a letter addressed to INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu and sighted by our correspondent expressed surprise as to why it has taken this long for a Supreme Court judgment to be obeyed.
The letter dated 29th June, 2022 was titled Re: Notification Of the Supreme Court’s Recognition Of Chief Edozie Njoku As The National Chairman Of The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
In the letter, Njoku argued that “it has never taken this long for the Commission to acknowledge Court judgments, considering the fact that this is the same Suit that gave Jude Okeke the National Chairmanship of APGA at the Lower Court, which INEC swiftly complied with. Similarly, when the Supreme Court erroneously gave Oye victory, INEC still obliged him.”
He said further, “Instructively, there are certain observations that are quite curious and have also made this matter an interesting one. It was the same Court Judgment which emanated from the trial Court at Jigawa that the Commission obeyed by recognizing Jude Okeke, as the National Chairman, after he (Jude Okeke) obtained Judgment of my purported suspension.
“Now, the Supreme Court has corrected a fundamental error in their Judgment, which is in my favour. It is incomprehensible that the Commission has refused to obey the Supreme Court judgment, which has been acknowledged by the Commission as an authentic Judgment from the Supreme Court. What really is holding the Commission from recognizing me as the authentic National Chairman of APGA?”
