‘You Can’t Impose Yourself On APGA,’ Njoku Tells Soludo

thank you so much everyone for staying with us Mr Sylvester aen is laying claims to National chairmanship of the all Progressive gland Alliance and is come after chief adedo inju who has been recognized by in and links to uh what has become a now controversial uh position of the court on the position of the national chairman of the party and the reason why uh chiefed joku has now been recognized as the national chairman of the party a lot of controversies have been generated we do understand that the office of Dooku in an has been shot but Mr is today at a press conference say that ruling that Chief V is relying on is not valid let me allow you to listen to him and I D say to date there is no judgment of any court of law in Nigeria that has nullified the convention that brought us to office because before you nullify a convention conducted by ABA you must join ABA as a political party that conducted that convention the fct high court never granted any of the relief sought by the plaintiffs to the effect that the Supreme Court declared U National chairman by the correction of the clerical sleep neither did the court of appeal declare chunju chairman of ABA in the two court of appeal judgment because the latest court of appeal judgment was the one delivered on the 28th day of June 2024 now Chief edu joins us live here in our studio thank you so much for joining us in thank you very much indeed thank so you're are not factional you are National chair I'm the national chairman of the party but what you heard what SL is was said that that ruling that you are relying on does not is not valid let's I mean what um the young man is trying to do is to just bring open up to bring up some controversies because he sees how well the NRA people have received my being National chairman that's even why they went and shut down the office the first question I'm going to ask him is that on June 6th or May 10th beforehand we were in court first of all it was a real Poetic Justice they said I forged the supreme court judgment they went to the police and the police charged me for for of a supreme court judgment they got um the register of the court of the Supreme Court to write a letter through the um director of media aand which was released to all the members of press saying that I forged a supreme court judgment I wrote a letter to the judges myself the lead judge before she replied to it it triggered off me writing again to the cjn the cjn replied and advised me to come by a different order order eight or something rle 16 which we did and when we got there and were their lawyers they left the area of accidental sleep and went in and brought in so many other allegations saying that a court in AA had made them chairman or and the court of appeal answered all those questions one by one by one I reminded them that a mistake they made was that nobody ever disputed ad Doan J as National chairman they ran after Judo when judo's name was who was reportedly my Deputy his name now appeared came up when um the lower court gave him judgment against me it was against me they gave him the judgment and an took his name in and they ran after Jud running after Jude they never for one day got up to say Chu was never the national chairman ofc I tried to join at that um court of appeal they didn't join me so I went into the Supreme Court as an interested party after and they granted me I removed O's name entirely from that now we went off to um a lower court which was a court in B I didn't I was already being charged there for for fraud they said I I fraudulently forged a supreme court judgment the two gentlemen now went ahead and went to the CJ of the fct saying that they want to know who is going to be who is going to bring the candidates of the of the party the court now looked at the case but while they were doing that o rushed off to do congresses and then finally a convention while they were doing the congresses they went to the court and reported to the court that these guys while we are hearing who is really you're trying to enforce the Judgment whether is it a true Judgment of the Supreme Court or not they went off to congresses and the court stopped them from doing any congresses from doing any convention but they went ahead brazenly face is okay went to monitor the convention even the governor was live on these channels doing that convention at the end of the day the Court ruled that that both judgment and ruling that everything they did every Congress every meeting any convention was illegal completely illegal and I continued recognizing it and O had perpetuated the act and we went onto a Content charge that they had no right to go and bring out slide with a court order and that was granted so I mean recently in recognized you as a national chairman of by virtue of the of the Judgment of they now went off to the court of appeal saying that the Judgment of the lower court was rubbish and the court of still upheld the Judgment of the lower court and that was at that point so but but but this all this is all political reasoning because we're talking about a political party there are insinuations on the ground that you being sponsored by somebody to bring down ABA who is sponsoring you is it anybody that just gets up wakes up and makes an allegation from the way we've handled the party in the shortest period of time we've been there do we look as if we've been sponsored by anybody to bring the party down are you the one sponsoring us yes exactly and we're not here for me to start shouting house yes I'm the one sponsoring myself you have that means to be able to sponsor and carry no I'm asking yes I'm telling you yes there a lot of Nigerians who do not know you tonight we be wondering who is edu does he have the capacity edu is a person who doesn't sit at high tables Ed Doan Jo is the one who his first son was the director of strategy to the Prime Minister of England Doan J is the one who is if you Google my name you see the sort of businesses but I don't sit on high I don't even want to be known the job I have at hand is to get upar right but why why is it so important for you to be leader and the chairman of ABA why why is it that if I wanton a a convention to be National chairman should I just give it to you to become the chairman I'm not interested we talking about you and your friends not my friends wait hold on hold on hold sh the question I've got to what do you the question is a very very hard question what do you mean do I have to be you should go to a governor now tell you should go to a governor who has won his election and tell him do you have to be the governor of the say yes he won his election yes so the question I'm asking that because you've gone back and forth to the court to the point that your name had been dragged as someone who stole and my name and my my name was cleared in the court in that Court was cleared and there should have been a thorough apologies from channels because you are the ones who propagated that news you're going on that line again I was cleared by the court there should have been an apology from everyone who said I you are very wrong there which one if we have an official position from cour what is the official for a moment moment we have official position not until recently we have invited you on this program and and speaking to you as a national chairman thank you I'm the national but you have no right to ask me why am I consistently going on in the battle for a moment if an has recognized yes and before now an recognized another exactly channels has recognized because that is what is lawful so what is wrong in that there was a court order on a which was sent to you in writing a court order was sent to all the channels saying there is a court order stopping inne stopping um o from them carrying out a convention this channel went on live carrying that some at the end of on the convention on the on the soal convention which there was a court order that soal convention now had a had um the contentious convention the one that which you which you do not agree with no not that I do a court stopped that convention from taking place we must obey court orders and suddenly when did not obey the court order there was a contemp charge against them when o carried on there was a contempt charge against him once there is a court order it must be obeyed now the question here is um are you working with Governor soludo because that's the only governor of UPA that we know let me answer that question better for you even on channels I've consistently asked for peace previously I've been talking peace peace peace Governor solo spoke with me I went to his house I was with him for three hours when is this about a month ago before before the after after I was recognized by in I went to his house sat down with him for 3 hours he spoke for 2 hours 45 minutes and I listened to him very very carefully I spoke for 15 minutes but that 2 hours 45 I listened to him you know what he eventually did he went and rushed to the House of Assembly before and said that they are the ones who are now going to be recognizing the chairman that that are going Toge for the local government elections a man who is talking peace how would he do that so you you do not see uh you agree with him or what exactly did you was the outcome of that meeting the three hours meeting what was fin the come of the meeting I told him that what I would like you to do is to find independent lawyers Sons I I even said yov sons that are not Eble he included yeah there's some good house SS I said yeah I said go to Lagos get some good signs and I'll provide you with documents all the documents from the court of appeal to the fah high court to the Supreme Court and let them read it when they read it you will find out that most of what these people are telling you are not true for example Sly is here telling us that is a document from the from the um from the CJ that is um opening is a fresh fact you know he's saying it's a fresh fact that we did not disclose all the facts and this is a document that they've tendered twice in court that's what I have here they tendered it in the court of appeal they tended it in so as far as you are concerned it's not a fresh fact it's not a fresh and it was considered in this it was considered in this and look at one of the paragraphs of what we I app to him in in invariably you are not on the same page with governor soludo we're not on the same page now I mean um I'm the national chairman of the part he's the governor when there is a crisis in PDP for example and there let's say there were seven Governors or six if there are four on this side and three on this side once one side wins or is recognized by in the other ones will come and recognize the chairman but they might be still fighting I asked him a simple question I said to him his Excellency one of your close AIDS was in my house and he asked me a question the question he asked me was what would I do if I was soludo in this matter I said what I would do if I was soludo was when that 25th of um of of of um I think it was October 2023 when there was an amended judgment and it read that my removal as chiefed is not justiciable it's an internal party Affair I would have called to speak with him speak to Edan I would have told him I cannot really come out and finance anything you are doing because I was sponsored by oo but what I would do for the interest of the parties if you are recognize or if you win this battle I will recognize you just go but I won't do I won't get involved I'm going to face my governance of am State you him not recognizing you poent more trouble for ABA him not him doing what he's doing even like people going to scatter ABA we should be doing things like that he not recognizing me as a recognized person of our he setting the party backwards let me ask you do you know the consequence of some of what is going on in ABA at the moment the consequence is that the the person who is suffering the most of it is himself because I give you an example all those people who have moved out from him who have who have now done primes on my side for um for the local government election are now not with him any longer so he him for his Governor he's fractionalized you understand no matter what he does he you can't be going for an election in 6 to 9 months time and you are entrenching yourself in such a battle so you are the one that is conducting the primary yes are conducting the yes we will conduct the primary as the party but I thought that that should be handled by the state is a local government I have yes obviously but but we have state chairman don't we so there are those that are loyal to you and they're not loyal they're not loyal to me in the supreme court judgment they said everything happened in aare the convention that is recognized by the Supreme Court is the convention starting from the W to the National so it means that they they politically if abar loses the grip on local government authorities I mean in any case anra has not held local government election in years over something that's that's on since under the first questions we've got to be asking is the matter fact that the governor has gone to the House of Assembly to say that the House of Assembly will now sign the nomination forms of those who are going to be candidates it's not done in anywh it is the that signs that so the question I'm asking should or if abar loses grip on the chairmanship of the local government because of this crisis Africa will not lose grip on the I mean you're a politician you know that it's a game either to lose or to win anra state is Holy up anra state is 90% UPA pet OB is of labor party is from uh it's from anra state anra state is 90% AA there are APC for a lot a lot of people in anra State Southeast are not quite happy with the situation in labor they're not happy with the situation in APC they're not happy with the situation in PDP so I'm asking you if anything goes wrong there's an a governorship election which Governor like what like what will go wrong and if anything could go wrong a local government election that the people of an state are alien to as far as the last few years is concerned they've not seen that kind of election happen it could go either way yes anything labor party won massively in the presidential election anything can be going wrong in labor at the moment anything can be going wrong in PDP at the moment anything can be going wrong in APC at the anything can equally well go wrong if you and Sol are not on the same page don't you think it might affect the chances of your party at next year's governorship election that's what I've said I've said that yes most likely most likely those who are now saying that uh ultimately Inu plan is to scotle soludo second term should I give you some information I was the first vice National chairman of this APPA in 2002 when he was registered I ran for federal house in on I'm from IM I was a federal house candidate when P rang in 2003 it was me who hosted tofa in my house in 1993 I'm too big for what you're saying I'm far far far so you don't have anything against Governor Sol why should I have maybe by by lication or by by your conduct there might be an effect on Governor Sol's chances of reelection with what is Governor soludo doesn't like AB is a man that has my own mind Governor soludo is looking for his sa who he had and he now went to an illegal convention and installed him and AA have said Capital no it will not happen AA must have good Executives for you how what is the way forward what must happen for you to the way forward is that we have already gone on 23 local governments we've gone on 23 States rather trying to reconcile them Way Forward is they are the ones who appointed or so who put in the governor of IND State the person who is the candidate now I don't have a I accepted him because he's up I don't need to go backwards the important thing is doing the right thing at all at all times and not thinking you can impose yourself from the party the party is what is supreme would you stoop to conquer I have stooped the L I've stoed I've I've gone to him I've had meetings with people but soludo has never ever ever so you want soludo to stoop for you to conquer you see I still putting words I said I I'm asking question I never you are just asking those question you said you have stooped is it the turn of solo to stoop now no Sol might need to bend a bit let let us hear each other that's what should happen yes that's exactly what should happen because we are the party okay and the party is what Supreme Chief I don't sayu thank you so pleas it's good to see you again thank you so much for but that's our show for tonight everyone many thanks for watching I'm sure I'll see you next time God bless Nigeria [Applause] [Music]