I remain Rivers APC caretaker chair, says Aguma

Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Igo Aguma, has insisted that he remains the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party in the state.

A statement signed by Aguma’s Media Adviser, Livingstone Wechie, said the court’s judgement that declared Aguma, the caretaker committee chairman remained valid because it had not been upturned by a superior court.

The statement said: “For the records, it is important to state that Rt. Hon. Igo Aguma is still the Acting/Caretaker Committee Chairman of APC in Rivers state as the judgement of the court which declared him the legitimate Chairman of the Rivers state chapter is still very much alive and has not been upturned by a Superior Court.”

The statement also described the swearing-in of Isaac Ogbobula as the Rivers caretaker committee chairman by the National Caretaker Committee as illegal and affront on the country’s judiciary.

It said Ogbobula, who is a lawyer, erred to have presented himself for the ceremony on Friday despite unresolved multiple actions at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court challenging the leadership of Aguma.

The statement said: “The purported swearing-in today, particularly the presentation of Mr. Isaac Ogbobula by himself for same to the National Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress APC for the inauguration is a mindless affront on the Nigerian Judiciary and gross misconduct unbecoming of a Legal Practitioner.

“This is unfortunately so because Isaac Ogbobula being a lawyer knows better than his action today is a subject matter of several Appeals at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court respectively wherein the res or subject matter touches mainly on the subsisting judgement of the Court that not only dissolved his Appointment as Caretaker Chairman but declared Rt. Hon. Igo Aguma the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC in Rivers state.

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“For the benefit of the doubt and for a better knowledge, our legal team led by Emeka Etiaba SAN has written a letter dated and submitted to the APC Acting National Chairman on December 10, 2020, titled, ‘The Need for Status Quo to be Maintained Pending the Determination of the Pending Cases Bothering on the Caretaker Committee of the Rivers State Executive of the Party’, bringing this fact to the attention of the National Caretaker Chairman.

“No doubt, the constitution of Isaac Ogbobula who in defiance to a judgement of Court and subsisting Appeals at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court presented himself for inauguration as Caretaker Committee of APC Rivers knowing the consequences of his action, is illegal, desperately ambitious, contemptuous and subjudice.

“His purported swearing-in is standing on nothing and does not exist because our Party which professes respect for the rule of Law knows that this respect must be whole and not selective.

“We, therefore, urge all our Party faithful in Rivers state to remain resilient and steadfast in the face of destructive tendencies by some dissidents in our midst, knowing that our party will rebound soon because of Rt. Hon. Igo Aguma and the entire members of the Caretaker Committee consisting of all Statutory members of the Party are committed to ensuring justice and our common good and not that of anyone man or godfather.”