Chidiebele Obika | I-Witness News
The All Progressives Grand Alliance national chairman, Chief Ezeokenwa Jr Sly Esq. has stated that the purported 2019 Owerri national convention as claimed by Mr Edozie Njoku and his co-travellers was not known to APGA, the then national Chairman of APGA, Dr Ike Oye or INEC.
Barrister Ezeokenwa gave the revelation earlier today, 6th September, 2024 when he appeared on Arise Tv newsday program where he spoke on issues concerning the leadership of the party.
Ezeokenwa pointed out that neither Chief Edozie Njoku who left the party in 2007 nor Chief Chekwas Okorie who was expelled from the party in 2004 and pursued his expulsion case to the Supreme Court, where he lost before joining the defunct UPP could have organized a national convention on behalf of the party. He informed that no APGA National Chairman issued notice for Edozie Njoku’s purported Owerri Convention in 2019.
Continuing, he pointed out that detractors of the party whom he addressed as impostors have been engaging in this kind of scheme during any governorship elections in Anambra state. He stated that the same people in 2013, 2017, and 2021 governorship elections played similar cards and scammed their victims of huge resources and are resurfacing now as the 2025 governorship election approaches. He however averred that Anambra is APGA land and that ndi Anambra are used to the development trajectory of APGA and cannot trade it with anything.
He further explained that the recent application to the Appeal Court granted him and APGA leave to appeal the Court of Appeal ruling of 28 June 2024 at the Supreme Court, which wasn’t about who is the Chairman of APGA—but a ground Njoku and his co-travelers have hinged their illicit claim on, as they were not initially joined in the case. The court confirmed that this move was “apposite and bespoke,” as he was validly elected Chairman of the party.
Ezeokenwa clarified that from the Supreme Court clarification regarding its judgment, where the apex court confirmed that it had never declared Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman and that INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu did not disobey any court judgment by not recognizing Njoku.
” To date, no court has ordered INEC or anyone else to recognize Edozie Njoku as APGA National Chairman—a claim that Njoku and his co-travelers continue to make without producing any supporting documents.
Furthermore, Ezeokenwa queried which National Chairman issued the notice of the convention to INEC before Edozie Njoku purportedly conducted their convention in Owerri, as Njoku was not claiming to be the National Chairman at that time. It is the duty of a party National Chairman to issue notice of its convention to INEC, as prescribed in the Electoral Act. This is why INEC did not monitor the said convention.
