Appeal Court Imposes N10m Fine On APGA Chieftains, Edozie Njoku, Chinedu Okoro Over Incompetent Suit

The legal tussle on the national Chairmanship of the All Progressive Grand Alliance APGA has taken a new twist with the Court of Appeal in Abuja imposing an N10 million fine on two chieftains of the party for filing incompetent suit in the matter.

The two chieftains are Chief Edozie Njoku and Chief Chinedu Benedict Okoro who have approached the court with a request to review a judgment delivered by the Kano division of the Appellate Court.

Justice Jummai Zankey in a ruling on the application held that the Court of Appeal in Abuja has no jurisdiction to review the final judgment of its Kano division.

In a unanimous decision of three Justices of the court led by its President, Justice Monica Dongban- Mensem, the court held that it was bound to follow the decision of its Kano division.

The Justice said the request of the two APGA chieftains amounted to asking the court to sit on appeal over its earlier judgment.

“It is a settled law that the Court of Appeal once it gives a decision on any matter cannot go back to the same issue except where there are typographical errors ”

“The proper place for the two appellants to go to ventilate their views is the Supreme Court and not any division of the Court of Appeal.

Justice Zankey proceeded to award N10m against the two appellants to be paid to the national chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Oluchukwu Oye and the party.

The Kano division of the court had on August 10. 2021 resolved the APGA national chairmanship dispute in favour of Victor Oye and also upheld the primary election conducted by his leadership which produced the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo as APGA governorship candidate for the November 6 gubernatorial election in Anambra state.