• Party chief sues Ikimi over APC
AT last, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given the nod for the Maxi Okwu-led faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to hold its national convention slated for today at the Women Centre in Awka.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Ibrahim Carefor, had dragged the chairman of the opposition merger committee, Tom Ikimi, to a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court over his alleged inclusion of the name of his party in the proposed merger of opposition parties into the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Also, APGA chairman, Dr. Tim Menakaya, has congratulated the party executive and members for successfully conducting a peaceful congress in Anambra State thereby laying to rest the seeming squabbles within the leadership of the party in the state.
INEC had earlier refused to endorse the request by the Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, to hold the national convention, arguing that the APGA constitution vests the powers to convene a national convention only on the National Executive Committee (NEC)
But contrary to the INEC earlier position, the interim chairman, Maxi Okwu, in a letter to the electoral body, dated March 11, 2013, posited that the planned convention was in line with Article 22 (1) of the party, which he filed with INEC, arguing that with the Enugu High Court's dissolution of the Victor Umeh-led NEC, the party had no other option than to hold a national convention, where it will elected its new National Executive Committee as it cannot remain without a NEC.
Okwu also argued in his letter to INEC that the strength of the March 11 letter for a national convention was in pursuant of Article 85 of the Electoral Act (as amended).
INEC, after going through Okwu's letter, responded in another mail issued last Friday, which was signed by its secretary, Abdulahi Kaugama and made available to The Guardian approving the party's claim on the need to hold its national convention.
The commission in the letter with Ref. No. INEC/DPPM & L/APGA/003/T/87, which referred to the APGA's letter of March 11, noted the scheduling of the party's congress nationwide and national convention, adding that it will send monitors to the congress and national convention as scheduled by the party.
The APGA chieftain in a case filed through his lawyer, Tony Ogbulafor Esq, had demanded, among other things, an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant from including the name of APGA in the proposed opposition merger, as well as demanding the payment of N50 million by the defendant as damages for the use of the name of APGA as being part of the opposition merger.
Menakaya, who spoke with The Guardian in Awka at the weekend, said as a grassroots party man, the peaceful congress held in Anambra shows that the future of APGA is bright, arguing that the exercise was legal.
"With the election of new officers, the old order has passed away and a new ones have come to state. What we have done is in order. Our ambition is to install APGA government in the South-East and other states across the nation", he noted.
The Guardian
Well they do have the final say so there is nothing else that can be done to revert it. Good news for the concerned party