Chief Edozie Njoku, the National Chairman of the All Grand Progressive Alliance (APGA), has reacted to a letter by retired justice Mary Peter-Odili that clarified the Supreme Court judgment of October 14, 2021, that truth has prevailed.
He described the letter as the final bus stop of the crisis rocking the party.
Chief Njoku, at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, Chief Victor Oye, the factional chairman of the party, to rise to the occasion and lay the crisis in the party to rest once and for all based on Justice Mary Peter-Odili’s letter of clarification.
According to him, this is the first time that a retired Supreme Court justice would come out and make such clarification.
This newspaper earlier reported that Justice Mary had clarified 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.”
Addressing the press conference, Chief Njoku recalled that he had written the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Supreme Court and other relevant bodies over the mistake in the copies of the supreme court judgement in circulation.
“I wrote the CJN and the Supreme Court. We said the Supreme Court owes Nigerians the duty of telling them the truth. The presiding judge has come out to make a clarification in her letter issued yesterday,” he said.
“I’m sure this must be the first time a retired supreme court judge has found it necessary to come out and tell the truth. But the nagging question is why INEC recognised the removal of Chief Edozie by the lower court and recognised his deputy as the chairman, why not recognise the supreme court judgement?”
“It is only those judges who made the judgement that can interpret the judgment.”
While calling all stakeholders in the party to bury the hatchet, Chief Njoku called on Governor Soludo to rise to the occasion.
“It is sad that we are here today when we know that elections are a few months away, and we are sitting down here talking about a supreme court judgement that has been corrected since.
“I’m begging everyone involved in this, particularly chief Victor Oye, that the game is up, I beg the Governor of Anambra State to rise to the occasion and let this crisis in APGA be dealt with once and for all.”
He also berated those alleging that he forged the court document and the retired justice’s letter.
“I have never forged any document, the supreme court has come out to say it is not a forged document.”
