INEC trying to suffocate APGA – National Chairman, Njoku laments

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Edozie Njoku, has alleged a plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to hold the party down.

Recall that Njoku had recently said that the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, will be heading to jail for contempt.

He accused the electoral umpire of refusing to recognise him as the National Chairman of the party despite court orders.

According to reports, a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sitting in Bwari Area Council, had dismissed all the forgery allegations levelled against Njoku by the Nigeria Police Force, NPF.

Recall that the NPF had on November 22, 2022, charged Njoku and the youth leader of the political party, Chukwuemeka Nwoga, to court for allegedly conspiring with others at large to alter a judgment of the Supreme Court delivered by Justice Mary Peter Odili (rtd).

Delivering judgement in the suit on Tuesday, Justice Madugu dismissed the 14-count charge preferred against the APGA chairman by the police.

The court held that due to “lack of sufficient and credible evidence, the prosecution has failed woefully to prove its case against the defendants”.

Speaking with journalists after the court judgement, Njoku said it was time for INEC to recognise him as the national chairman of the party.

“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.

“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 .”