Fides Media Living the Faith
By Jude Atupulazi
An Anambra State High Court, Awka Division, Tuesday, validated the leadership of the Sir Basil Ejidike-led State Working Committee, NWC, in the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The court dismissed a suit filed by the former State Chairman of the APC in Anambra State, Mr. Emeka Ibeh, alongside Mr. Chukwuma Agufugo, the former State Secretary of the party; and Mr. Okelo Madukaife, former Publicity Secretary, seeking the removal of Hon Sir Basil Ejidike-led State Working Committee of the Party.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Ike Ogu of Awka High Court I, while delivering the judgement, ruled that the plaintiffs’ suit lacked any merit whatsoever or wherever derived in the first instance, noting that an Appeal Court judgement on the bone of contention subsisted.
He therefore affirmed the Sir Basil Ejidike-led State Executive Committee of the party as the authentic and substantive leadership of the All Progressives Congress in Anambra State.
The plaintiffs, Emeka Ibe; Chukwuma Agufugo; Okelo Madukaife and others, had been in different courts in the last fifteen months seeking to dislodge the validly elected Chairman of the APC in Anambra State, Hon. Sir Ejidike and other members of State Executive Committee that emerged through the State Congress that held in January 2022.
The latest judgement affirmed that the prayers sought by the plaintiffs had been overtaken by events.
Fides recalls that the Appeal Court sitting in Awka had on February 22, 2023 dismissed the judgement of the State High Court seeking the nullification of the State Congress of the APC in Anambra State that gave a four-year mandate to the Chief Basil Ejidike-led State Working Committee down to the Ward Excos of the party, for lack of merit.
A press statement signed by Dr. Iyke Oliobi, State Publicity Secretary of APC, said the latest verdict of the High Court had put paid to ‘their desperation to sneak back to office by causing havoc in the Anambra State Chapter of the APC.
These desperate insurrectionists were surreptitiously seeking a bizarre tenure elongation by clinging on a 2018 Congress whose mandate should have expired in August 2022, even if the APC National Executive Committee had not dissolved the entire structure of the party from the National to the ward level on 8th December, 2020.’
Oliobi said they had refused to acknowledge the reality that the APC in Anambra State and indeed nationwide had moved past the product of the 2018 Congresses.
‘A new mandate was given to the ward, local government, zonal and state officials of the party in Anambra State in January 2022 after the conclusion of the governorship election in Anambra State. This is the only legal mandate in existence and no amount of judicial voyage by these fifth columnists can change the present circumstance,’ Oliobi stated in the press statement.
He said the State Chairman of the party, Sir Ejidike, had once again extended an olive branch to the aggrieved individuals to join hands with the State Working Committee of the party in Anambra State to work towards the emergence of an APC governor in Anambra State come 2025.
‘We can only hope that this time around, they will see reason to embrace peace and unity as the State Executive Committee is ever ready to work with them, believing in their readiness in giving Ndi Anambra an APC governor come 2025,’ the release concluded.