Supreme Court affirms Soludo as APGA guber candidate, Victor Oye national chairman.
After hours of fierce legal fireworks by lawyers, the Supreme Court on Thursday in Abuja affirmed former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo as the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance APGA.
The apex court also returned Chief Victor Oye as the national chairman of the party.
In a judgment of 5- man panel of Justices of the court, the appeal filed by one Jude Okeke was dismissed on the ground of being an abuse of court process and lacking in merit and substance.
Justice Mary Odili who delivered the lead judgment awarded a sum of one million naira against Jude Okeke to be paid to APGA and and Victor Oye.
Justice Odili upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kano division which had earlier dismissed the suit of Okeke.
The apex court lambasted the appellants for engaging in forum shopping and crass abusing of court process to get favourable judgment to suit their own purposes.
The unanimous judgment also took swipe at Okeke and some lawyers for attempting to mislead the court through multiple cases over the same subject matters.
Justice Odili noted that the appellants in the desperate bid to abuse the court moved their cases from Anambra states to Imo and later to Jigawaa state whete they eventually got judgment in their favour on March 31, 2021.
The Jigawaa high court judgment delivered in Match was however vided and set aside by the Court of Appeal, Kano division on March 8, 2021 on the ground that the high court of Jigawaa lacked jurisdiction to have entertained the suit.
Justice Odili upheld the Court of Appeal decision that the Jigawaa high court lacked jurisdiction and the setting aside of the court’s finding.
The Supreme Court also agreed that the election of officers of political officers was an internal was an internal affairs of respective parties and cannot be challenged in court.