Respite has came the way of the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the November 6 election in Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, as Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed Chief Victor Oye as the valid National Chairman of the party.
The apex Court affirmed the decision of Court of Appeal Kano Division that set aside the judgment of Jigawa state high court .
Soludo has won his nomination as candidate of APGA in the forthcoming governorship poll by the Chief Victor Oye faction.
His nomination has been accepted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as candidate of APGA in the November 6 governorship poll.
Chief Jude Okeke had challenged the authenticity of the Oye leadership at a Federal High Court in Jigawa State, where Judgment was given in his favour.
However, the Jigawa Judgment was set aside by the Appeal Court leading him to proceed to the apex court seeking to nullify the appellate court decision.
Delivering judgment in the appeal on Thursday, the apex court in a unanimous judgment held that the internal issue of political parties’ is outside the jurisdiction of courts and consequently upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which resolved the leadership tussle in APGA in favor of Victor Oye and also upheld the primary election conducted by his leadership which produced Soludo as APGA governorship candidate for the November 6 governorship election.
Justice Hamma Zamani of the Kano Division of the Court of Appeal had on August 10 in his judgment, set aside the judgment of a Jigawa State High Court, which had earlier declared Jude Okeke and Chukwuma Umeoji as the APGA’s National Chairman and governorship candidate respectively.
According to the appellate court, the trial court erred by entertaining a suit wherein it lacked jurisdiction.
In their unanimous decision, the seven member panel, resolved the issue against the appellant.
The apex court in the judgment delivered by Justice Mary Odili, held that it was clear that the appellant engaged in abuse of judicial process.
According to Odili, the subject matter of the suit is not justiciable because it bothers on the internal matters of a political party.
She held that the appellant engaged in forum shopping by taking a matter which emanated from Anambra State to a court in Jigawa State.
While the panel berated lawyers to the appellant for engaging in unethical conduct by filing such suit in the first place, it blamed the Jigawa High Court for accepting to hear the suit that was outside his jurisdiction.
Consequently, the panel slammed a fine of N1 million against the appellant for abuse of court process.
Meanwhile, the panel held that the application for joinder by Chief Edozie Njoku was unnecessary , irrelevant and consequently dismissed it.