The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, may be heading for its worst moment as the Enugu division of the Court of Appeal has granted an order for stay of execution of a high court judgement which sacked its national chairman, Chief Victor Umeh.
In a unanimous ruling delivered by the 3-man panel led by Justice Mr D. Galinge, the court ordered that the parties in the matter should return to the status quo pending the determination of the main suit.
The court order came few hours after the party elected new members of the National Working Committee, NWC on Monday in Awka, Anambra State.
Chief Maxi Okwu emerged as the new national chairman of APGA in the convention that was boycotted by two other factions of APGA, led by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Chief Victor Umeh.
Obi Okafor, SAN, Counsel to the respondent, Ichie Jude Okafor had before the ruling urged the court to stay further actions on the proceedings, noting that he had filed a notice before the Supreme Court.
According to the counsel, his notice before the Supreme Court is praying for stay of the Court of Appeal’s proceedings of March 25 on the grounds that his client was not served the processes, yet the court fixed a date for ruling on the matter.
“The respondent has filed a notice before the Supreme Court for stay of further proceedings in this matter.
“After the matter has been adjourned for ruling, the respondent complained to the Supreme Court by way of notice that we were not served with the application. He followed it up with an application for stay of proceedings, which is now pending before the Supreme Court”, Okafor stated.
He added: “we are not applying for arrest of judgement, we are saying that it is a duty imposed on the court by rules of judicial procedure that once it is aware that a matter is before the Supreme Court, it should stay proceedings”.
In a counter argument, Umeh’s counsel, Wale Olanipekun, SAN, asked the court to discountenance the respondent.
“This procedure is unprecedented, to file an affidavit of notification of a pending motion at the Supreme Court and bring it at the Court of Appeal at the point of delivering its judgment.
“There is no application before your Lordships not to deliver your ruling. The Supreme Court has not assigned a date to the matter. This application has no foundation, it has no practice or procedural foundation”, he canvassed.
He therefore urged the court to go ahead and deliver its ruling, stressing “it is a constitutional duty, constitutional imperative, constitutional mandate to deliver your ruling”.
The court agreed with Umeh’s counsel and held that, delivering ruling on the motion for stay of execution of the high court judgement would not affect the matter at the Supreme Court, adding that “no date has been fixed for the matter in the Supreme Court. No rule for arrest of judgment exists. The ruling slated for today shall be delivered.
The court also held that even if the respondent had filed an application at the Supreme Court, no number has been assigned to it, “and it means it has not been entered”.
Dramatically, while the court was set to deliver the ruling, Okafor came up with another motion urging the court to set aside its procedures of 25th March.
The court equally refused to grant his request, noting that since he said he had filed a notice before the Supreme Court on the same issue, it cannot come up before the Court of Appeal.
Galinge, therefore, went ahead to deliver the ruling on the matter, taking cognizance even though there was no counter motion before the court. He said the court was convinced that proper service of the court processes was effected on the respondent. He said the court bailiff threw the processes at the respondent, when he refused to collect it.
In a unanimous judgement, the court ordered for a stay of execution of the High Court judgment, which restrained Umeh from parading himself as the national chairman of APGA, pending the determination of the appeal before the court.
It declined to make order for accelerated hearing of the appeal and adjourned the matter for later date to be communicated to both parties.
It could be re-called that Umeh had approached the Court of Appeal after the Enugu High Court presided over by Justice Innocent Umezulike sacked him alongside other members of the National Working Committee of the party.
The embattled APGA chairman prayed the court through his counsel Wale Olanipekun, SAN, for an order to stay the execution of the judgement.
He also prayed for an accelerated hearing of the matter. It is unclear which faction of APGA leadership, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will recognize, going by the convention held yesterday in Awka, which was monitored by the commission.
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