Chief Victor Ikechukwu Oye, the controversial National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), is said to have met with the NEC in Awka, the capital of Anambra State.
Chief Oye was ordered to stop representing himself as the national chairman of the party by the Federal Capital Territory High Court 40, which had a hearing in Bwari, Abuja, on May 10, 2023.
Additionally, the court ordered him not to host any gatherings, meetings, congresses, or conventions in the name of the APGA NEC or NWC and declared any congresses and conventions to be void; he disobeyed this order by having the NEC meeting.
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However, Oye, who is reported to have presided over the NEC meeting in Awka, Anambra State, rejected Mr. Edozie Njoku’s claims that he lacked the authority to preside over the May 31st National Convention, arguing that there is no legal prohibition against him doing so.
He said: “As you can see this is APGA and this is APGA for real and don’t mind all those things that you read and hear about because they are not APGA.
“At the meeting we ratified the guidelines and time table for the Congresses and the Convention which would take place on the 31st of May and this was through motions that were moved and ratified by the members of the National Working Committee NWC and National Executive Committee NEC of the party.”
Oye further stated that the alleged party members’ fates would be addressed in accordance with the requirements of the party constitution, emphasizing that it is a matter of internal party matters.
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“Well we have a constitution of the party and such a thing would be handled in line with the provisions of the party constitution and this is an internal affairs of the party,” he said.
His ability to organize any rallies, meetings, Congresses, or Conventions in the name of the APGA NEC or NWC was prohibited by a court order issued on May 10.
The order came as a result of a Supreme Court decision on March 24, 2023, which eliminated Victor Oye from its judgment record and recognized Chief Edozie Njoku as the legitimate party chairman, ending a four-year conflict over the essence of APGA.
According to page 13 of Chief Njoku’s plea, Hon. Justice Garba Lawal directed that Oye’s name be removed from the lawsuit with file number SC/CV/687/2021 and be replaced with “Chief Edozie Njoku” as National Chairman of APGA.
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Even so, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in complete defiance of the Supreme Court, insisted that Festus Okoye Esq., its National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, is the APGA National Chairman in a press release issued on May 9 by Okoye.
By doing this, INEC disregarded a recent ruling from the Supreme Court that identified Edozie Njoku as the legitimate national chairman of the APGA and continued to recognize Chief Oye in that capacity.
According to sources, Oye felt empowered to flout the court after INEC’s support.
Others who attended the meeting despite an ongoing court order that nullified the position of the state governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, were APGA stalwarts who shunned the gathering.
A pro-democracy movement, Save Democracy Group, responded to the news by threatening to take Abuja as a result of INEC’s unwillingness to abide with a Supreme Court judgment from March 24.
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The group said that Nigeria’s democracy is in danger due to INEC’s failure to abide by a Supreme Court ruling.
The group’s Director of Media, 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 Chief 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 obnoxious narrative is designed to sustain the impunity for which the commission has gained notoriety. But, it is up to us as a people, either to allow or stop it. This is simply our mission.
He said: “Ozo Victor Oye is now above the law. He acts with impunity. INEC led by Mahmood Yakubu is backing him to disobey our courts.
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“INEC has emboldened Oye to act with impunity against a subsisting court pronouncement. But with time, we shall know if Oye and INEC have what it takes to disobey the Supreme Court.”
Another observer, Don Nwabueze opined that “shortly INEC will abandon him to rot in jail, after same commission had depleted both the Anambra State Treasury and APGA Purse through him and his cohorts.”
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