Court reaffirms Nwafor as Imo APC boss

An Abuja High Court sitting in Bwari yesterday reaffirmed Daniel Nwafor as the authentic chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State.

Yesterday’s judgement was in line with an earlier position of the court, which recognised him as the party chairman in the Eastern Heartland.

One Evans Enwerem had, in 2018, commenced legal action challenging the conduct of the ward, council and state congresses of APC in Imo.

Cited as defendants in the suit are APC, its national chairman (Adams Oshiomhole) and Nwafor.

Having been sworn in, Nwafor, upon service with the process, filed a counter-claim.

The court dismissed the plea of the plaintiff and granted the reliefs as demanded by Nwafor.

It, however, restrained APC and Oshiomhole from tampering with the tenure of Nwafor as chairman.

However, in December 2108, Oshiomhole had sought to sack the Nwafor-led executive, against the order of court.

Nwafor, who seems to enjoy the support of Governor Rochas Okorocha, later filed a contempt suit against APC and its national chairman.

Oshiomhole, through his counsel, Damian Dodo (SAN), subsequently filed a preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court.

When the matter came up yesterday, both the plaintiff counsel and defence counsel could not agree on which of the applications to hear first.

While the plaintiff prayed the court to hear the contempt charge first, the defence wanted the preliminary objection it filed heard first.

The court later decided to hear the objection challenging the contempt proceedings.

The trial judge, Justice Othman Musa, while adjourning the matter, held that “court orders are meant to be obeyed until such orders are set aside.”

After reaffirming Nwafor as the chairman of the party in Imo, the judge adjourned proceedings till March 20, to enable counsel to Oshiomhole argue his motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court.