APGA CRISIS: COURT GRANTS CHIEF OYE LEAVE TO APPEAL IMO JUDGEMENT, REJECTS STAY OF EXECUTION APPLICATION
Reporter : CHINAZO ILECHUKWU
An Imo State high court sitting in Owerri has rejected an application for stay of execution on the judgment affirming Chief Jude Okeke as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) brought before it by a factional Chairman, Chief Victor Oye.
The court however granted an application by the plaintiff seeking leave of the court to appeal the judgment delivered on the 28th of July 2021 by Justice Benjamin Iheka of Owerri high court, which declared Chief Okeke as the authentic National Chairman of the party.
Delivering the judgment, the Vacation Judge, Justice Victoria Isiguzo, said after listening to arguments by both the plaintiff and the third respondent, Chief Jude Okeke, the court ordered that leave be granted to the plaintiff as an interested party to appeal the earlier judgment.
The court held that the earlier judgment that pronounced Chief Okeke National Chairman of the party was still subsisting and binding on all until set aside by an appellate court. Speaking to journalists after the judgment in Owerri, Counsel to the third respondent, Mr. Collins Asika-Ilobi commended the court for refusing to grant the application for a stay of execution of a final judgment.
Mr. Asika-Ilobi described the judgment as an affirmation of the law, which states that once a judgment is delivered, it is conclusive on the arguments canvassed and binding upon parties thereto.
“That implies that Jude Okeke remains in charge of APGA pending when the appellate court will review the judgment of the lower court. That is the purport of that judgment and that INEC is bound to accept any list of forwarding letters from Chief Jude Okeke, who is presently in charge of APGA,” he said.
However, the Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Imo State, Chief John Iwuala, who stood in for the plaintiff Chief Victor Oye-led APGA, said with the pronouncement of the court, they could proceed to the appeal court to challenge the judgment of Justice Iheka, which declared Chief Jude Okeke National Chairman of the party in a suit that Chief Oye was not a party to.