Chief Edozie Njoku, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has raised allegations of a conspiracy by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to stifle the party.
Njoku previously stated that Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of INEC, could face imprisonment for contempt.
He has accused the electoral body of failing to acknowledge him as the party’s National Chairman, despite court directives.
Reports from NewsNow revealed that a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), located in Bwari Area Council, dismissed all forgery allegations made against Njoku by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
On November 22, 2022, the NPF pressed charges against Njoku and the party’s youth leader, Chukwuemeka Nwoga, for allegedly conspiring with others to modify a judgment of the Supreme Court delivered by Justice Mary Peter Odili (rtd).
During the court’s ruling on Tuesday, Justice Madugu dismissed the 14-count charge filed against the APGA chairman by the police, citing the prosecution’s failure to provide adequate and credible evidence to substantiate their claims against the defendants.
Following the court’s decision, Njoku expressed the need for INEC to officially acknowledge his position as the party’s National Chairman.
He stated to journalists after the court’s decision, “It’s just incredible. There’s nothing like the truth. We all know that I was taken for impersonation, conspiracy and forgery, all of them and that I wasn’t the national chairman of the party. But now I’ve been cleared of everything. I’ve also been told I should be writing letters as the chairman of the party. It showed that there is a war in this country. There’s the war of justice, war of truth and war of peace. Imagine I wasn’t a resilient person maybe because I was born in this country, we do things differently a normal person would not have stayed this resilient.”
He continued, “I just can’t believe that I can be the national chairman of the party and some people who think that they’re powerful will say I’m not going to be. We’ve gone to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said that I am. And today, that criminal charge that INEC has been shouting that they’re not going to give me anything because I have a criminal charge, today, the criminal charge has been discharged.”
“Another judgement has come out that I’m the national chairman of the party. Now how will INEC not recognise me? Or is this a move to hold APGA down? Maybe the conspiracy is just to hold APGA on the ground, but APGA must be free now because there’s no charges on us.”