Mary Peter-Odili, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, has waded into the leadership crisis rocking the All Grand Progressive Alliance (APGA), clarifying that the name of Victor Oye, the factional chairman of the party, was erroneously inserted into the Supreme Court judgement of October 14, 2021, instead of the name of Edozie Njoku.
“It is to be placed on record that I corrected the mistake by replacing Chief Victor Oye’s name with that of Chief Edozie Njoku on Paragraph 1 of page 13 of the 14th October 2021 judgement,” Justice Peter-Odili said in a letter of clarification sent to Njoku, dated Monday, November 7, and sighted by Elendu Reports.
The clarification from the retired justice has laid to rest the question of who the right national chairman of APGA is. She noted that Chief Victor Oye was never a party to the proceedings that gave rise to the October 14, 2021, Supreme Court judgement.
“The correction was made having cognizance that on the day of delivery of the judgement being 14th of October, 2021, by a slip of the pen and tongue, the name of Chief Victor Oye was brought in,” the retired justice continued in the letter.
“The error was pointed out to me by other members of the panel, who reminded me that Chief Victor Oye was not a party to the Appeal or proceedings which emanated from the Jigawa High Court. However, in the course of the trajectory errors, the name of Chief Victor Oye kept recurring in the record of the judgement instead of the right party to the proceeding, Chief Edozie Njoku.”
Speaking further in the letter, Justice Peter-Odili added that the press statement issued by Festus Akande, Director of Media, Press and Information at the Supreme Court, on September 1, 2022, “denying all the CTCs of the amended judgement issued to Chief Edozie Njoku, clearly stemmed from the misconception of the true position”.
By this clarification, it is to be noted that Chief Victor Oye was not a party to the proceedings, and the proper party for whom the judgement and orders referred is Chief Edozie Njoku,” she added.
