Attention is gradually turning in the direction of the Court of Appeal where feuding groups within the Rivers APC are possibly expecting a pronouncement.
The Court had at its last sitting, adjourned the matter to Tuesday, the 23rd of February, 2021 after it listened to briefs by lawyers representing both the Plaintiffs and Defendants.
Will the court stop the APC from going ahead with the revalidation exercise in Rivers State? Or will it ask the APC to proceed with the exercise?
No one is sure in which direction the pendulum of justice will swing when the Court of Appeal goes into session Tuesday to consider matters that are placed before it.
While expectations are mounting as the date of hearing at the Court of Appeal draws close, Hon. Igo Aguma is believed to have said peace may never return to the APC via the outcome of court cases.
Coming from a major dramatis pesonnae whose case at the Supreme Court was technically withdrawn, observers are persuaded to think that the Abe/Aguma alliance may be considering dialogue.
Aguma was quoted as saying a few days ago that he expected the National Secretariat of the APC to wade into the matter.
Although Aguma did not refer directly to the APC’s political mainstream in Rivers, observers appear to think he was perhaps flying a political kite.
Other watchers of the political scene see Aguma’s comments as an indication of the current thinking which might exist within the splinter group.
The group has initiated most of the cases in court involving the Rivers APC, challenging the right of the National Secretariat of the party to name the Caretaker Committee and disputing its choice of Isaac Ogbobula as the Chairman.
The Abe/Aguma alliance had shown little respect for the decisions of the APC National Secretariat on critical issues pertaining to the advancement of the party.
There has been no reaction from the Rivers APC mainstream. The party appears to have adopted ‘a-wait-and-see’ approach at this time, going by the way events are unfolding.
“We have always left all kinds of options on the table”, a member of the splinter group which is waging war against its own party remarked, “we never said that we have abandoned dialogue. This is what Igo is hinting at.”
Is it truly possible that a turnaround in terms of the strategy employed by the splinter group led by Senator Magnus Abe is offing?
Are Abe and his followers willing to allow the mediation of the Oyegun led peace mission?
“What real value would the offer of a conversation add”, an analyst who has been monitoring developments within the Rivers APC asked, “Where would the talks that Aguma is suggesting take these people who have fought bitterly for months?”
Aguma’s experience in court of late has not been entirely pleasant. Such experiences have been laced with judicial setbacks.
The foundation upon which his claim to the chairmanship of the APC Caretaker Committee was anchored has been demolished by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja.
The tactical retreat from what some lawyers refer to as impending defeat at the Supreme Court has further worsened Aguma’s case.While some await a reaction from the APC to insinuations made by Aguma on that ocassion, others are saying the opposition leader who leads opposition within his own party ought to lay down a clear plan.