The Guardian (Nigeria)

APGA crisis: Okorie cries out against judicial rascality, decries NBA’S silence

- From Leo Sobechi, Abuja

FOUNDING chairman and rival presidenti­al candidate of All Progressiv­es Grand Alliance ( APGA), Dr. Chekwas Okorie, has bemoaned the silence of Nigeria Bar Associatio­n ( NBA) over what he described as judicial rascality on the recent Supreme Court ruling on the party.

He said: “It a mockery that a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Peter- Odili, came out of retirement to respond to a letter seeking for affirmatio­n of a judgment given by a panel she chaired.

“The tragedy is that no lawyer has protested the clear underminin­g of the Supreme Court or the persecutio­n of an innocent man.” In a statement, yesterday, in Abuja, Okorie expressed dismay at the attempt by some judicial officers working in cahoots with compromise­d police officers and agents of Anambra State government to try Chief Edozie Njoku for decisions of the apex court justices.

While calling on men and women of conscience to rise up and confront the judicial abominatio­n, Okorie noted: “The dangerous and criminal rascality of some powerful individual­s, led by Victor Oye and his sponsor, Prof. Charles Soludo, could pose enormous danger to Nigeria’s democracy.

“The fact that no one is above the law is a generally accepted truism in a democracy like ours. Disparagin­g and denigratin­g the Supreme Court amounts to judicial abominatio­n.

“If everyone keeps quiet and allows it to happen with no reactions from the judiciary, the Attorney General of the Federation, men and women of goodwill, as well as civil society organisati­ons, then it amounts to watering the grounds for chaos. It may eventually consume all of us.

“I am talking about APGA leadership crisis, which is now in the 18th year of the 21year- old party. My travails are well known and documented. Today is not the day to recount my ordeal.

“However, I draw your attention to this episode that portends danger to the 2023 general elections.”

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