By Baron Ike
The leadership of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) led by its National Chairman Victor Oye and all members of the National Working Committee of APGA, have distanced themselves from the court ruling of Monday, May 22 in Enugu which pronounced Martins Agbaso the Chairman of the party.
“We hereby dissociate our great party from a kangaroo judgment in one suit E/291m,/2017 , Mike Aloke & ors V INEC &ORS ..BEFORE Hon Justice A.R Ozoemena of the High Court of Enugu State, purportedly obtained this morning against the leadership of the party directing INEC to recognise one Chief Martin Agbaso as the national chairman of APGA, as we had no knowledge of the pendency of any such suit, more so, as no court processes concerning the said suit were ever served on us.”
The Oye-led APGA said they could recall that the same group of persons who clandestinely obtained the court ruling at the High Court of Enugu State had been expelled from the party in December 2016, according to the National Publicity Secretary of APGA, Ifeatu Obiokoye.
Obiokioye said: “Hence, they commenced an action at the High Court of the FCT Abuja against the leadership of the party led by Dr. Victor Oye. That suit is now pending at the Court of Appeal Abuja Division following a stay of proceedings by the High Court of FCT until the determination of the appeal. Meanwhile, the said appeal has been fixed for hearing on the 1st of June 2017.
“In the circumstances we wish to inform members of the party that the purported judgment obtained this morning at the High Court of Enugu State by the same group of expelled members, was obtained through fraudulent concealment, deceit to court and criminal misrepresentation of material facts.
“We therefore advise members to ignore these unbridled acts of provocation as the leadership of the party is on top of the situation.”
There are insinuations that some of the former members of APGA who left the party for other ones are the ones behind the development as part of their moves to pull the rug off the foot of Governor willie Obiano as he prepares to seek a second term as Anambra State governor.
Some of them, sources said, are banking on using the court process to stop Obiano from getting recognized as the APGA flag-bearer thereby making it possible for him to lack consideration and probably attempt to defect to another party where the ticket may not be given to him on a platter.