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Founding father of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the pioneer chairman of the occasion, Chief Chekwas Okorie, shares his ideas with ADEBAYO FOLORUNSHO-FRANCIS, on the disaster rocking the occasion, his evaluation of Labour Get together presidential flag bearer, Peter Obi, amongst different points
Apart from refusing to recognise your candidate as APGA chairman, the place did you assume the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee went mistaken?
To begin with, the Supreme Courtroom gave an unambiguous judgment on March 24, 2023, when it corrected some errors, it made in its earlier judgment on the All Progressives Grand Alliance management and confirmed that Chief Edozie Njoku is the nationwide chairman of APGA elected on the Owerri conference of the occasion held in 2019.
INEC, being a celebration to the go well with, was additionally formally served by the bailiff of the Supreme Courtroom. It (INEC) was anticipated to obey, being the judgment of the very best courtroom of the land. However Prof Mahmood (Yakubu) refused to obey it. The Supreme Courtroom by itself doesn’t implement its judgment. As a substitute, the structure permits any courtroom of document beneath to implement the judgment of the Supreme Courtroom.
So, two officers of the Nationwide Working Committee of the occasion went to an FCT Excessive Courtroom at Bwari; Courtroom 40. In the midst of the trial, the opposite faction of the occasion led by Victor Oye deliberate to carry a conference, even whereas the trial to implement the Supreme Courtroom judgment was ongoing.
The trial courtroom, primarily based on software, gave a transparent order that each one events to the go well with should preserve establishment ante, which means that no conference, no conferences, nothing must be held till he had completed with the matter earlier than him. Then, he additionally included that INEC mustn’t supervise or recognise any motion taken by both occasion.
However these different individuals ignored the order, and INEC went forward and supervised that conference and returned the person who now parades himself as the brand new chairman of APGA as duly elected. So, the identical individuals had been in courtroom to file kinds 48 and 49 for contempt, and INEC was duly served.
The contempt cost took its full course and the courtroom discovered Professor Mahmoud and Victor Oye responsible of contempt in early November final 12 months, 2023. In his lenient view, they got 14 working days to purge themselves of contempt. However the judgment was already clear; that they had been discovered responsible.
The decide stated that in the event that they did not purge themselves of contempt, they’d face the total wrath of the legislation. He then adjourned the matter to November 29 (2023). On the twenty eighth of November, simply on the eve of the day the judgment was to be held, Oye and his individuals received a pronouncement from the Courtroom of Attraction displaying that points had been joined earlier than them, saying that the decrease courtroom mustn’t go any additional.
Have been you shocked by the ruling?
After all, all people was surprised. Often, you can’t arrest a judgment if a matter has been adjourned. You solely permit the judgment to go on. However if you’re not glad, now you can go to enchantment. However right here, a judgment has been delivered. For the numerous years I’ve been round, I’ve by no means heard sentencing on a matter that isn’t of life and dying. However this was what occurred, and the decrease courtroom had no alternative however to adjourn the matter sine die ready to know what the Courtroom of Attraction would do.
What I stated now’s only a repetition of what I stated at the moment. Because the INEC chairman had been discovered responsible of contempt, he had turn out to be a contemnor by our legislation. Contempt of courtroom is a prison offence. The structure of the nation can also be clear {that a} contemnor is divested of each proper to be heard by an appellate courtroom till he has purged himself of contempt.
So, why will a Courtroom of Attraction even entertain an enchantment by a contemnor like Oye? As we communicate, Mahmood has not even appealed the judgment towards him. It’s only Oye that that has gone to enchantment. What the Courtroom of Attraction did was to adjourn that matter that will have ended on the twenty ninth of September by 5 months to April. It was that matter adjourned to April that was ultimately heard final Monday. What did the courtroom do? The courtroom now adopted the transient of all of the events and adjourned for judgment.
However one thing occurred. We noticed a judgment that was unrelated to the management of APGA, which was a matter that we had discarded on the trial courtroom that needed to do with the popularity of candidates for the 2023 election. We had discarded it as a result of it had nothing to do with the APGA management matter. However that matter, surprisingly, surfaced on the Courtroom of Attraction.
Unknown to me and all of the litigants, our names appeared as appellants within the Courtroom of Attraction. The judgment towards us was given in June and no person raised the matter. We didn’t even know we had a judgment that was given towards that enchantment. The humorous a part of it was that the enchantment itself was filed out of time so the Courtroom of Attraction merely struck it out for being statute barred.
I had made a petition to the president of the NBA and the legal professional common workplace prior to now. Let Nigerians not hold quiet. There’s no different nation the place a contemnor will proceed in workplace. That was why I made the decision. If we need to flip the opposite eye to a person like Mahmood who’s celebrating disobeying orders of the courtroom, together with the judgment of the Supreme Courtroom, to get away with it, the ball is in our courtroom. However I can’t be accused of not talking out.
Why is it tough for elders and stakeholders of APGA to name the 2 factional chairmen and resolve the difficulty?
Properly, it’s an excellent query, particularly for the general public who has not been following the occasions. However I can inform you that APGA will go into the Guinness E book of World Information because the political occasion with the longest management dispute within the historical past of the whole world.
How outdated is that this dispute?
We have now had 22 years of management disputes. I based APGA in 2002. In 2004, a management disaster broke out. It took me seven years to have a celebration I initiated its formation to be registered after three makes an attempt. The 2 earlier ones failed. In 2002, the third try succeeded, and it was celebrated. I broke an 80-year jinx. No Igbo man ever based a political occasion since 1923.
So, the celebration was at house and overseas. However some individuals wouldn’t permit that occasion to outlive.
I used to be not even allowed to get pleasure from my tenure because the chairman. I used to be barely two years as chairman in 2004 when the disaster erupted. It was led by Victor Umeh and sponsored by Peter Obi. This identical Victor Umeh was coming to me to gather transport cash to come back to Abuja for conferences. However Obi didn’t disguise it and apologised to me. He regretted it and confessed that he was misled. I used to be the one who gave him the nomination and raised his hand on the parade floor.
I used to be additionally the one who rehabilitated Ojukwu politically. I introduced him into APGA and made him the presidential candidate. I by no means did it as a result of the intention was to not glorify myself. I believed that the occasion would give our individuals a platform for political engagement. That was the aim. So, I made all of the sacrifices and virtually introduced Ikemba into it. He was not a part of the formation.
However many individuals gave Ikemba Ojukwu the credit score for bringing his ideology to APGA. Are you contesting it?
Which ideology? After all, he wasn’t there after we wrote our manifesto and structure. The unique APGA structure which continues to be with INEC comprises the entire issues we discuss from self-determination, federalism, and useful resource management to the target rules of the occasion. They’re all documented on the market. There is no such thing as a means you’ll be able to register a celebration with out first submitting your occasion manifesto and structure.
Ikemba joined the occasion in January 2003. That was two or three days earlier than we gave him the nomination. His membership card is there. I bear in mind elevating his hand and handing him the flag on the tenth of January. He grew to become our de facto chief as a result of I used to be not presupposed to be. Ojukwu had been any person I had at all times adopted with utmost respect proper from the time he returned from exile.
Is APGA additionally looking for to affix the rumoured merger with LP and PDP?
Let me first clear this. I’m not the chairman. Nonetheless, I nonetheless have the ethical authority to talk for all of us in APGA as a result of it’s one thing we’ve mentioned over time. APGA won’t go right into a merger with any occasion. However we consider in constructive engagement. APGA can go for alliance, accord, and coalition with out dropping its id. That’s what the occasion will stand for.
After we based APGA, it was Zik’s (late Nnamdi Azikiwe) political philosophy of constructive engagement that we adopted.
Did the disaster in APGA cease after you threw within the towel?
No means! As I left, that disaster didn’t cease. It continued with Edozie Njoku this time going for the workplace of chairman and so they started to struggle him. We have now had three governors since APGA was based. What occurred is that each governor spent all the cash he might spend to retain APGA in Anambra State. That’s the reason, outdoors me, no one that shouldn’t be from Anambra State has been the chairman of APGA and has not been a lackey of the governor.
I believe Umeh comes from the identical village as Peter Obi. They’re from the identical Agulu. That’s the younger man who most likely was in secondary college when APGA was based. That was the individual that Soludo made the chairman. So, each governor that comes places APGA into his pocket and that’s the reason in 22 years APGA has not grown past Anambra State. It’s only by the particular grace of God that APGA has not gone extinct.
Is that most likely why many individuals nonetheless understand APGA as an Anambra State occasion?
It’s a massive disgrace. Even in Anambra State, it’s a occasion that each native authorities is now in management. When Peter Obi was there, they derisively referred to as it the Agulu Individuals’s Normal Meeting. Throughout Obiano’s time, they modified it to Aguleri Individuals’s Normal Meeting to additionally mirror the place he hails from. Now, it’s the Aguata Individuals’s Normal Meeting. That’s Soludo’s village. So, you’ll be able to see how APGA has been ridiculed.
What’s your relationship with Obi after the alleged betrayal? Is he nonetheless somebody you’ll be able to belief?
As I earlier stated, I maintain no grudge towards Peter Obi. We have now made up since. I’m so pleased with Peter’s phenomenal rise in nationwide politics. He has graduated from being a state champion to enjoying on the nationwide degree. Although we aren’t in the identical occasion, I nonetheless beat my chest I gave him political publicity. If I had not insisted on giving him the nomination, as a result of others had been contesting for that workplace, he wouldn’t have had that publicity as governor of Anambra State for 2 phrases. He would most likely not have had one thing to make use of as proof of our capability to launch himself on the heart.
Do you foresee Obi dumping his occasion for the PDP?
Truthfully, this query could warrant charging a consultancy payment. However I can provide it to you without cost. I believe Obi might be higher off partaking the PDP. However they need to be extra eager about getting LP to come back collectively in order that they’ll proceed with that. It’s because at this degree, leaping from occasion to occasion will diminish loads of his features. If he can retain the Labour Get together, I can see the 2027 election popping out in a fashion that may not be a winner-takes-all.
What’s your view on Tinubu’s first 12 months in workplace?
I prefer to be very charitable right here. President Bola Tinubu inherited a really tough financial scenario and likewise had his palms a bit of bit tied being in the identical occasion that served eight years earlier than his coming. So, he selected to take sure daring steps with out spending an excessive amount of time apportioning blame. These steps are very unpalatable. I’m a really optimistic particular person naturally. I see that the longer term is brilliant, and it’s painful now. Any one that says he’s not feeling the ache resides in denial.
However the one factor I might need to advise President Tinubu on is that each himself and the Nationwide Meeting ought to, at the very least for goodness sake, reduce down on sure ostentation and lavish life-style of those that are the top of presidency. The best way the lawmakers and ministers parade themselves by way of our widespread patrimony may be very offensive. They don’t seem to be being delicate to the emotions of, or attentive to the sensitivities of the individuals. I’ll add that a few of his ministers inside one 12 months haven’t executed too nicely. I’ve not seen what has occurred within the space of agriculture. Now that is the wet season. Within the subsequent one or two months, by August, we’ll expect new harvests. I’ve not seen the place these harvests are going to come back from. So, in agriculture, a lot is predicted.
Will you say the nation is in secure palms?
I consider Nigeria is in secure palms as a result of we’re in such a scenario the place any feeble-minded president would have thrown up his palms and surrendered. However this can be a man who’s politically astute, and brave. He takes steps that I love. The one gray space that I would like to say is that he’s sadly drifting within the route of President (Muhammadu) Buhari when it comes to nepotism. That’s not so good for common notion.
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