By Marcus Ikechukwu
Chekwas Okorie, founding national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), has criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over what it described as a grave mistake that is unpardonable.
Okorie, on Wednesday, alleged that INEC insulted the sensibilities of Nigerians when it substituted the name of Edozie Njoku with that of Victor Oye as national chairman of the party.
Okorie said the sensibilities of most discerning Nigerians were assaulted by a most jaundiced and half-baked press release issued by the INEC, under the purview of the national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, Festus Okoye, which was dated Tuesday, 9th May 2023.
He said the entire charade drips of mischief, dishonesty, deception and/or poor understanding of the clear and unambiguous, unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on March 24th, 2023.
He wondered why INEC which has a full-fledged legal department with not less than three senior advocates of Nigeria (SANs) could not understand or refused to understand that the Supreme Court judgment on suit no. SC/CV/686/2021 delivered on October 14th, 2021 has been appropriately replaced by Appeal no. SC/687/2021 which now has Chief Edozie Njoku as an interested person /party seeking to be joined.
According to him, it’s surprising that INEC could not understand or refused to understand that the Supreme Court in the exercise of its inherent jurisdiction corrected the errors of the Jigawa High Court and the Kano Appeal Court that failed to join Chief Edozie Njoku, whose purported removal as the National Chairman of APGA duly elected at the National Convention of the Party held at Owerri on 31st May, 2019, was the subject matter of the suit at the Jigawa High Court that snowballed all the way to the Supreme Court.
“INEC could not understand or refused to understand that their Agent Provocateur, Chief Victor Oye who never featured at the Owerri Convention of APGA and was never mentioned in the Jigawa High Court judgment but threw himself into the arena at the Kano Appeal Court was appropriately deleted in the subsisting judgment of the Supreme Court no. SC /687/2021 was delivered on March 24th, 2023.
“It is important at this juncture to educate INEC that suit no. SC/686/2021 has been effectively replaced by suit no. SC/687/2021, using the authority of Order 8, Rule 16 of the Supreme Court and the inherent jurisdiction of the Court. It, therefore, follows that any reference to the defunct judgment no. SC/686/2021, as INEC finds convenient to always do is an exercise in utter mischief.
“We have noted the last paragraph of the INEC Press Release where it stated inter alia; “The Courts are not helpless when they make orders, deliver judgments and make pronouncements.
“They also have the capacity to punish for disobedience of their orders and judgments in committal proceedings. This is the process open to law-abiding citizens, groups and organisations …”
“We venture to advise INEC that it is not late in the day for the Commission to retrace its steps and begin to repair its badly battered image as a public institution that is notoriously steeped in reckless disregard of the rule of law and due process.
“The rapidity at which the Commission is being reprimanded by various Courts and other stakeholders in Nigeria’s democracy should be a cause for serious concern to the leadership of the Commission,” Chief Okorie stressed in his statement made available to the media.”
