Again, apex court insists on Njoku as APGA Chairman
Edozie Njoku
For the umpteenth time, Nigeria’s Supreme Court has declared Chief Edozie Njoku, and not Victor Oye, the authentic National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), stressing that the former National Chairman, who was not a party to the appeal ruled on October 14, 2021, benefitted from clerical error.
In a letter addressed to Njoku, dated November 7, 2022, the apex court noted that it corrected clerical errors contained in the judgment delivered on October 14, 2021, in which the name of Oye was recorded instead of Njoku, the current National Chairman.
In the letter, signed by Justice Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili, which was copied to the current Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kayode Ariwoola, and Justices, K. M. O. Kekere-Ekun, Mohammed Lawal Garba, Ibrahim Saulawa and Emmanuel Agim, the retired justice noted that the correction was necessitated by the slip of tongue and pen.
Four other members of the apex court panel that ruled on the APGA leadership crisis had earlier reflected the corrections to their judgment, as well as certified true copies given to parties.
Part of the letter reads: “I recall your letter, dated May 6, 2022, to me as the presiding Justice of the panel, and the other four justices, which requested for correction of the October 14, 2021, Supreme Court Judgment, wherein the name of Oye was erroneously inserted instead of Njoku.
“It is to be placed on record that I corrected the mistake by replacing Oye’s name with Njoku on paragraph 13 of the October 14, 2021, judgment. The correction was made having cognisance that on the day of delivery of the judgment, by slip of the pen tongue, the name of Oye was brought in.”
“This error was pointed out to me by other members of the panel, who reminded me that Oye was not a party to the appeal or the proceedings, which emanated from the Jigawa State High Court. However, in the course of the trajectory of errors, the name of Oye kept recurring in the record of the judgment instead of the right party to the proceeding, Njoku.”
