CYRIL MBAH, Abuja
The factional National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Edozie Njoku, has vowed that the party will halt the expansionist tendencies of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by leveraging on the power of the people to make sound decisions about their future and experiences based on the economic conditions existing in the country today.
Chief Njoku, who addressed media representatives at the FCT NUJ Secretariat on Thursday afternoon on the Supreme Court judgment of Nov. 27, 2024, conceded that as the National Chairman of a party, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has a right to say that he aspires to capture every state in Nigeria for the APC but added that Anambra will be a different case.
The APGA chairman’s remark sprang from a question about the efforts of APC to win every state in the federation and in answer, Chief Edozie Njoku said: “Nigerians must say to themselves that enough is enough. The hunger in the land is too much.
There is too much blood crying out in the land. We all need to say enough is enough and the Supreme Court judgement has passed this burden to all right-thinking persons of Anambra State to do the right thing during the election
“We must come together irrespective of our differences to ask ourselves whether we want an emperor or a full-fledged local government autonomy and if the autonomy is what you want, then we must stand up to be counted.”
Addressing the APC chairman directly, Chief Edozie said: “If the chairman of the APC says he wants to take all the 36 states, as a national chairman, he has a right to say so.
Every individual should however ask himself whether he/she is happy with what is going on in the country under the present administration and if the answer is no, then we must act positively about the situation because enough is enough.”
Earlier, Chief Njoku, told the press that members of APGA and well-meaning people who believe in internal democracy within “political parties are waiting patiently to hear what I will say after the Supreme Court judgment which took place yesterday (Wednesday) which denied him the leadership of the party.
“There was a Supreme Court judgment which was meant to look at the enforcement of a Court judgment that was done by the lower court. It was a court that some powerful people took me to and accused me of forging a Supreme Court judgment.
In that court, the court found me not guilty, and while the process was going on, members of the NWC brought that case forward to know who was really going to fill the candidates for the party called APGA.
“The Supreme Court ruled and stood by the judgment which said, I am not guilty.
I am not guilty and so are officers of the party as per the Supreme Court judgment.
Everyone who knows me, knows I believe in the rule of law and in any establishment there must be a hierarchy.
“The highest hierarchy of the judiciary in Nigeria is the Supreme Court. And we in Nigeria must learn
that when the Supreme Court speaks, no matter how or what you think, you must obey it.
We must be a country of law and order. Things cannot just be turned around to suit you because you are uncomfortable.
“There will be anarchy in Nigeria.
If we get up and choose the judgments that we accept and the judgments that we don’t go for. But the kind of things I can’t stand, I speak out against them.
“Where a Supreme Court is coming to give a judgment, a high court judge should not and does not have the powers to start giving a judgment.
“All said and done, the Supreme Court has spoken and I truly believe in the Supreme Court.
I also truly believe in the Chief Judge of the Federation who has made it clear to so many of us that she needs to bring sanity to the judiciary. I will not and I cannot be a clog in the wheel of progress and I will not add to the pressures of those who are putting in relentless efforts to make sure that the judiciary cannot survive this very telling time.
“I also beg the people that we fought with for the past years to stop bragging and bringing disrepute to the judiciary by saying how they spent 20 million
dollars, how they did this or that to
Chief Edozie Njoku. I don’t believe
them, but even if they did,
remember it’s a state fund.
We must learn how to have respect.
if you feel that you’ve done
this or that, Nigerians must remove our minds from that focus.
“The people I really like to commend are certain people who within this fight, apart from my National Working Committee, apart from people who have really put
themselves on the line, are people
in the state of Anambra, with a sitting governor
decided that enough
is enough.
“These set of people particularly the 21 local government chairmen decided that the Federal Government of Nigeria,
the judiciary of Nigeria, with the help of the same Supreme Court, decided that there must be autonomy at the local governments.
“The local governments should wake up and choose their own leaders. If N500 million is going to a state, or a local government, let that N500 million go to the local government, month after month, and let them be able to work with it
and let power be closer to
the people.
“Everybody cannot win at all times.
But out of those 21 local
government, they are crying
and shouting, what do we do?
What I say to them is, keep
calm. The election of Anambra state is going to be a referendum for people to decide whether it
is going to be an emperor they want or is it going to be a local government,” Chief Edozie concluded.
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