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BREAKING: S’Court clears road for Soludo *Restores Ezeokenwa as APGA boss

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Chukwuma Charles Soludo, Governor of Anambra State, may now have reasons to take a breather, following the decision of the Supreme Court to restore Sylvester Ezeokenwa as the authentic leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), ending the claim of Edozie Njoku to the office.

The development came with the apex court upholding the appeal by the faction of the party earlier recognising Ezeokenwa as its National Chairman, which seems to have now put the leadership crisis in the party to an end permanently.

Not only did the apex court, which made its pronouncement on Wednesday, authenticate Ezeokenwa’s leadership, it also awarded an N20 million fine against Njoku for filing a frivolous suit at FCT High Court, Bwari.

It is coming on the heels of the decision of Justice James Omotosho, of the Federal High Court in Abuja, restraining Njoku from parading himself as the national chairman of the party, after holding that there was no valid court judgment or order, including a judgment from the Supreme Court, that recognised him as APGA national chairman.

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Ezeokenwa, alongside APGA, had filed the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/966/2024, filed the suit with the originating summons on 12 July, against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) kicked against the recognition of Njoku by the commission.

While APGA and Ezeokenwa were recognized as the first and second plentiffs, Njoku and INEC were recognized as the first and second defendants, respectively, as part of the protest that followed the removal of the names of Ezeokenwa, a legal practitioner, and his executive officers from the INEC website, and the replacement of same by the names of the Njoku-led leadership of APGA by the electoral umpire on 9 July.

Omotosho, who held that INEC was wrong to have recognised the Njoku-led leadership of the party, had stated: “There is no subsisting court order upon which it acted. The decision of the Supreme Court was clear as to who the national chairman should be and it is certainly not Chief Edozie Njoku.

“Chief Victor Oye was in fact recognised by law. Furthermore, at the expiration of his (Oye’s) tenure in 2023, a national convention was held on 31st May 2023 in Awka, Anambra State which produced the 2nd Plaintiff (Ezeokenwa) and other persons as national executives.

“The 1st defendant (INEC) monitored same and issued report (Exhibit APGA 1). There is nothing before this court faulting the election of 2nd plaintiff and his executive team as the rightful occupants of the national executive of the party.

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“The Ist defendant must, therefore, restore their names as the National Executive Officers of All Progressives Grand Alliance party.”

Omotoso, while stating that the Supreme Court had settled the matter in the case between Njoku and Oye on who the valid national chairman of the party was in suit number: SC/CV/687/2021 dated March 24, 2023, held that the Supreme Court did not alter the substance of the judgment delivered on 14 October 2021.

He noted: “The Supreme Court did not alter the substance of the judgement affirming the judgment of the Court of Appeal which set aside the judgment of the High Court of Jigawa and held that who should be the acting national chairman of the party is within the confines of the internal affairs of the party which is not justiciable.

“There is clearly no order by the Supreme Court recognising Chief Edozie Njoku as chairman of the party and it is a wonder how the Ist defendant could have claimed that its action was based on a purported court order,” he added.

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Nafiu Gombe: Yes, I have sponsors! *I can’t fight ADC big men alone!

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Nafiu Bala Gombe, the man on whose behalf the African Democratic Congress (ADC), is currently in a prostrate state, has admitted to getting outside help in prosecuting his legal matters against the David Mark camp.

Recall that Mark, former Senate President and Rauf Aregbesola were, last week, derecognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and had their names struck out based on the case filed by Gombe on September 2, 2025.

The commission had relied on the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal, which ordered parties in the case to maintain status quo ante bellum, which it interpreted to mean that it should not deal with either side.

Against the backdrop of the dust the matter had raised across the country, the embattled ADC leadership, had accused the former Deputy Chairman of being sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to play the spoiler role to enable President Bola Tinubu have no challenge in the 2027 presidential election.

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Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the Mark camp, had last week, stated this much when he wondered how Gombe, who on his own could not afford an ordinary lawyer, going by his financial status, would now be hiring more than three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to represent him, which would probably run into tens of millions of naira.

Reacting on Tuesday, Gombe admitted getting outside help, but added that such assistance was not coming from government quarters or the APC, but from public-spirited individuals and Nigerians averse to the injustice being meted out to him.

Abimuku Monday, spokesman to Gombe, who spoke during an appearance on Morning Briefs, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, on Tuesday, told his host: “Before now, they were saying these people are big weights and we’re light weights. Now, we’re suddenly being seen as human beings. Earlier, we were seen as nobodies – as boys who don’t have capacity to challenge this in court.

“They say Nafiu Bala does not even have money to pursue his case. You see, that’s how they reduce people by their own estimation. They don’t find out who people. They have forgotten that for you to seek legal actions, there are so many ways to go about it.

“It is either you use your own money or your personal relationship with people. Does it mean that somebody in politics cannot have his own friends or cannot have lawyers as his friend or cannot have other members of the society as his friends.

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“These are not members of the APC. They don’t belong to any party. They’re citizens of this country, who mean well for Nigeria. Nobody is scuttling the coalition. The fact remains that if you have a challenge, people will rally around you knowing it’s a good cause you’re fighting. People will rally around you to give you the necessary support that you need. They even called my principal a small boy.”

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Woman returns N1million discovered in purchased items to owner  

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Serah Luca, a Christian woman, has returned N1 million she unknowingly took along with goods purchased from a trader at Terminus market in Jos, Plateau state capital.

Luca, a petty trader, reportedly said she made the purchase on Friday and only discovered the hidden cash after getting home.

She said her decision to return the money was driven by fear of God and her belief that she could not keep what did not belong to her, especially knowing the hardship that comes with losing money in business.

“I am a petty businesswoman. I know what it means to suffer loss. If I put that kind of money into my business, I believe God would punish me,” Daily Trust quoted her as saying.

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The trader, Abubakar Dola, who deals in polythene bags at Terminus market, expressed surprise at the woman’s honesty, noting that he had no idea where the money went after mistakenly placing it inside the bag she bought.

Dola said he had planned to transfer the cash through a point of sales (POS) operator but became worried when he could not see the polythene bag where the money was kept.

“I mistakenly included it in what she bought. I didn’t realise until days later, and I had already given up hope. For her to return it after three days is remarkable. I pray Allah rewards her and gives us more people like her.”

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Strait of Hormuz: Comply now or you’ll be history – Trump warns Iran

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“The entire country could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” were the words with which US President Donald Trump, flashed the redlight signal over what could be the fate of Iran in the coming hours, after a month-old war, which saw leaders of the Islamic nation, all but totally obliterated.

The POTUS, who on Saturday, gave Iran 48 hours to to open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic approaches, or comply or risk facing “hell,” later threatened that the US would blow up Iran’s power plants and bridges if Tehran failed to adhere to his warning.

However, in his latest threat on Monday, Trump told reporters that Iran had until Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET (1 am WAT) to make a deal, adding: “We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business – burning, exploding and never to be used again, I mean complete demolition – by 12 o’clock. And it’ll happen over a period of four hours if we want it to. We don’t want that to happen.”

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