I’m Not Affected by Court Judgment, Omo-Agege Insists

Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has insisted that he is not affected by the judgment of a Federal High Court in Asaba that sacked Delta State executive of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Prophet Jones Erue, which conducted the primaries that gave him the ticket to contest the 2019 senatorial elections in the state.

Justice Toyin Adegoke had on March 19, sacked the Erue-led executive, and gave recognition to the executive led by Chief Cyril Ogodo, which means that all functions carried out by the sacked executive, including the primaries that brought Omo-Agege, were null and void.

Justice Chikere of the Federal High Court in Abuja had on June 18, 2018, recognised the Erue-led executive of the party in the state.

But Omo-Agege in a statement signed by Nath Dortie on Monday, argued that since he was not a party to the suit on the leadership of the APC in Delta State, he was not bound by the ruling of the Federal High Court in Asaba.

According to the statement, “On March 18, 2019, Hon Justice Toyin Adegoke of the Federal High Court in Asaba gave a judgement in suit No: FHC/ASB/76/2018 which supposedly recognised Chief Cyril Ogodo and persons under him as executives of the APC in Delta State instead of the present executives of the party led by Jones Erue-led executives duly recognised by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.

''This judgement is in violent conflict with the valid, unchallenged and subsisting June 18, 2018, judgement of Justice Chikere of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in suit No: PHC/ABJ/CS/509 18 which validated, recognised and gave legal life to the Jones-led executives of the party, a judgement that the plaintiffs in the Asaba court failed to set aside/appeal against.

''Although the narrow issue before the Asaba court is the leadership question of the APC in state and given that no contestant in the 2018 primaries of the party in the state was a party to the action, Justice Adegoke nonetheless made pronouncements that ostensibly touched on the rights of the contestants in the said primaries in their absence.  Indeed, the said judgement seems to curiously target, for maximum harm, the rights of persons who were shut out of the case by questionable declinature of otherwise simple applications to join the action to defend their threatened rights.

“As it is, the APC and Jones(as respondents) have filed appeals against Justice Adegoke’s judgement.  Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru (APC’s governorship candidate in the 2019 general election) has also filed an appeal to set aside the entire proceedings and judgement of the lower court on the ground, among others, of the court’s perverse rejection of his application to be joined as a necessary party in the matter to allow him to defend his threatened interests.  We commend the appellants who apparently protecting the Abuja judgement as a permanent lathing rod of defence against anarchy, nuisance, malevolence, rascality and corruption, now want the appellate court to set aside the lower court’s proceedings/judgement in its entirety.

''It is elementary that the Federal High Court, whether in Abuja or Asaba, is the same and of coordinate jurisdiction nationally.  The Asaba court has no appellate authority to override or set aside the valid, subsisting and final (being now appealable) judgement of the Abuja court.  To the extent that the Asaba court somehow clothed itself with false appellate power to review the Abuja judgement, including delving into questions of issues estoppels and re judicata, the Asaba judgement looms large as a deliberately orchestrated effort to concoct and stoke avoidable anarchy, as desired by sponsored agents of elements who are labouring to undermine APC’s interests in Delta.”

The statement added that “finally, may be it needs to be said that to the extent that all Delta State APC candidates in the 2019 general election are directly or indirectly connected to the judicially approved executives of the party under Jones (vide the valid, binding, unchallenged and subsisting Abuja judgement), their candidacies remain intact and cannot be questioned, except of a superior court setting aside the same Abuja judgement.  As of today, that seems impossibility.”