A new twist has emerged in the leadership tussle rocking the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), with the police roping Justice Mary Odili (Rtd) and her then Secretary, Mrs Ogunseye Adebiyi, into a forgery charge at the resumed hearing of the case.
Commenting on the development, former APGA National Chairman and the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the party, Chief Chekwas Okorie, described it as “an abominable act in Nigerian jurisprudence”.
Okorie in a statement he issued yesterday, Tuesday, February 14, 2023, also expressed dismay at the level the Supreme Court has been allowed to be ‘compromised’ in the matters relating to the tussles within APGA.
He alleged that the nation’s apex court has been dragged to an unprecedented ridicule because of a mad ambition to control the soul of APGA at all cost.
He said, “The mad ambition to control the soul of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) at all cost has led Chief Victor Oye and his sponsors to induce the Nigeria Police to throw all cautions over board to drag the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the apex court of the land to an unprecedented opprobrium and disgrace”.
The APGA Founder said that the Supreme Court of Nigeria has been embattled in recent times on multiple allegations of corruption.
He accused the police of hastily indicting Justice Mary Odili’s secretary in a forgery charge.
Hear him: “On the resumption of hearing on the adjourned date, the Police amended its charges against the defendants to now include Mrs Ogunseye Adebiyi who was Secretary to Justice Mary Odili at the material time as an accused person and Hon. Justice Mary Odili (retired) and Hajo Sarki Bello, the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court as witnesses. “The Police in its amended charges unashamedly alleged that it was Mrs Adebiyi that forged the judgment at the behest of her boss, Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili (retired).
“This summersault by the Police effectively transferred the offence of forgery from their earlier victim Chief Njoku to a new victim Mrs Adebiyi.
“This is a new twist and an abominable act in Nigerian jurisprudence where the presiding Justice of the Supreme Court, the Chief Registrar and a staff of the Court will be dragged to a trial court on a ‘criminal’ charge for merely carrying out their statutory function as Judicial Officer and staff of the Supreme Court of Nigeria”.
