Edozie Njoku Is “A Loafer Who Doesn’t Exist” – Says Ozonkpu Victor Oye

DR. TONY OLISA MBEKI OGBONNA 

The immediate past National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Ozonkpu Dr. Victor Ike Oye, has declared that Edozie Njoku is a “loafer who doesn’t exist,” cautioning the public against taking him seriously, even as a jester, as he is “a known scammer”. 

Appearing on Channels TV’s Political Paradigm, Ozonkpu Oye stressed that no legitimate convention took place in Owerri that purportedly produced “an imposter, Edozie Njoku”. He explained that no National Chairman issued a notice to INEC for any such convention in Owerri, urging the public to ask Njoku who the National Chairman of APGA was before the alleged convention, which APGA National Chairman conducted the said Owerri Convention, and whether the National Leader of APGA at the time, Dr. Willie Obiano, was present at the said convention in Owerri.

Ozonkpu Victor Oye maintained that no court order stopped him or APGA from conducting their convention and further emphasized, “No one builds something on nothing”.

Oye clarified that a party’s National Chairman emerges through a convention, not through a court order, noting that the Supreme Court has consistently stated that the leadership of a political party is not justiciable, as it is an internal affair of a political party. He reiterated that no court order can produce a National Chairman of a political party and remarked that INEC’s recognition of Njoku was a grave error, which the party is actively working to correct.

On the Supreme Court judgment that Njoku and his co-travelers rely on, Ozonkpu explained that the Supreme Court judgment actually awarded costs against Njoku and his co-traveler, Jude Okeke, in dismissing their suit while affirming the Kano Division of the Court of Appeal, which upheld him as the then National Chairman. He pointed out that the correction of an accidental slip in the Supreme Court judgment did not change the substance of the judgment. Both the Supreme Court and its official circular confirmed that at no point was Edozie Njoku declared the National Chairman of APGA.

Ozonkpu questioned which court order INEC was following, given that the Supreme Court is “the final court in the land”. Oye noted that “impostor Edozie Njoku” and one Jude Okeke procured a judgment at Birnin Kudu, Jigawa, far away from Awka or their Owerri, where the incidents happened, in a forum-shopping judgment that INEC relied on to remove the name of Governor Soludo as the APGA candidate, replacing it with Chukwuma Umeoji, the candidate of Edozie Njoku. The Appeal Court overturned this, and it was upheld by the Supreme Court. He added that it’s the same judgment they now claim is in their favour and not in favour of their candidate, Chukwuma Umeoji.

The former National Chairman strongly affirmed that APGA is a spirit, and that Barr. Sly Ezeokenwa remains the legitimate National Chairman of APGA, not by court order but through a duly conducted APGA National Convention. He also reaffirmed that Prof. Soludo remains the National Leader of APGA. Ozonkpu added that Chekwas Okorie is not the founding father of APGA, but rather an expelled and disgraced founding Chairman, who lacks integrity and is willing to perform dirty political tasks for crumbs.

Ozonkpu Dr. Victor Oye also praised Governor Soludo for his massive infrastructure revolution in Anambra State, particularly the completion of the Amansea-Obaofemili roads, noting that no previous government in Anambra had remembered the people from that side. He also highlighted Soludo’s significant strides in education and health.

In addition, Oye called on President Tinubu to “bequeath strong institutions to Nigeria” by using appropriate means and to “listen to the yearnings of Nigerians”. He advised the President to reduce the size of his cabinet and drastically cut down the cost of governance.

Oye recommended the implementation of the Steve Oronsaye and Justice Uwais reports on civil service reforms and urged the President to implement people-oriented economic policies. He further called on the President to return the pump price of petrol to its original rate.