The court presided by Justice Abdulkadir
Abdul-Kafarati further ordered the National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Sani
Shinkafi and other members of the National Working Committee, NWC, elected
alongside Umeh at a convention held on February 18, 2011, in Awka Anambra State,
to vacate their respective offices.
Aside Okwu, the court also directed the
electoral umpire to henceforth relate with Mr. Ibrahim Carefor, Chief Dickson
Ogu, Dr. Gbenga Afeni and Alhaji Abubakar Adamu as the duly elected national
officers of APGA. They all emerged from a separate convention of the party that
also held in Awka on April 8, 2013.
Meanwhile, Umeh, has kicked against the verdict,
filed an appeal and insisted that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain
the suit. His team had also dragged Justice Kafarati before the National
Judicial Council, NJC.
Specifically, Justice Kafarati ruled that “Umeh
and Shinkafi (1st and 2nd defendants), having been expelled from the party
whether lawfully or unlawfully, regularly or irregularly, cannot validly
continue to occupy the positions of National Chairman and National Secretary,
respectively when the suit they filed challenging their said expulsion has not
been decided and in their favour.”
He maintained that “the 2nd Defendant, having
first been elected National Secretary of the party on January 10, 2003, which
is over 10 years ago, cannot validly continue in office 10 years after he was
first elected when by Article 18(2) of the Constitution of the party, any
official of the party can only stay in office for a maximum of two terms of
four years each.”
The judge equally noted that both the defendants
were voted into office by voice votes rather than secret ballot as stipulated
by the Constitution of APGA, a process he said, invalidated their emergence as
valid national officers of the party.
He stressed that unless and until the judgement
of the Awka High Court given in a suit that was earlier filed by one Michael
Joe Onwudinjo, which had recognised the Okwu-led faction of the party, was set
aside by a higher court, it remained binding, subsisting and must be obeyed by
INEC.
Efforts to get Okwu to react to the verdict,
yesterday, did not yield dividend as several calls to his mobile phone number
did not go through.
However, a press statement by his Senior Media
Assistant, Victor Chigozie Eneh, showed the joy that has enveloped Okwu’s camp.
Outlining how the details of the judgement, Eneh
expressed happiness that Justice Abdulkadir Abdul-Kafarati granted all the
reliefs sought by Okwu.
Meantime, the Umeh- led faction of the party,
yesterday, took the matter before the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, alleging
that the trial judge engaged in acts of judicial rascality.
It contended that the Enugu Division of the
Appeal Court had ab-initio okayed the indefinite suspension of all the
Okwu-led executives from the party and stressed that the Supreme Court was
already aware of the facts of the case.
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