- Soludo’s Faction Heads to court
By Abiola Olawale
The leadership crisis rocking the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has continued to escalate as its National Chairman, Edozie Njoku has threatened to suspend the only governor elected under the party, Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State.
Njoku made this declaration after attending court proceedings at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The National chairman accused Soludo of alleged anti-party activities, and of throwing the APGA into factions.
He claimed that Soludo is allegedly sponsoring some members of the party against him and the National Working Committee (NWC) in an attempt to oust the NWC from office.
According to him, 80 per cent of the APGA hierarchy had agreed to suspend Soludo and others for alleged anti-party activities.
He said the party would announce others’ names to sanitise and instil discipline, decorum, and orderliness in the party.
He stated: “Remember what the Chairman of the APGA BoT said, that we, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, should take action so that we don’t look like toothless bulldogs.
“One of those people to be suspended is the governor, and I’m saying, are we going to suspend the only governor we have?
“But if the only governor we have is pretending or playing to the gallery, making these honest people go in and commit anti-party activities, we must nip this in the bud.
“Unfortunately for them, the court presided over by Justice James Omotosho had refused to grant the application, insisting that they must put the national chairman of APGA and others on notice.
“If you remember, just about a week ago or two weeks ago, we just left the Court of Appeal, where a stay was applied at the Court of Appeal to stop me from being recognised by INEC.
“Even though the Supreme Court said in their own words that the removal of Chief Edozie Njoku as national chairman of APGA is not justiciable, they still came to court.
“They went to Awka and filed a suit. Suddenly, the judge in Awka was very smart, and he pulled out of it.
“They came to the Federal High Court again. They filed another one behind our back.
“They were applying for an interim injunction behind the back of the national chairman of the party, behind the back of APGA, behind the back of the orders of the Court of Appeal.
“They went forward behind the back of APGA and INEC, and INEC has written that everything they said is not true.”
The New Diplomat reports that the APGA has been facing a leadership crisis, which has split the party into two factions.
One faction is chaired by Njoku while the other is chaired by Sly Ezeokenwa.