National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Maxi Okwu, has dismissed Monday’s Federal High Court Awka order restraining him from parading himself in that position and Hon. Egwuoyibo Okoye as Anambra State APGA Chairman.

Okwu was elected during the APGA National Convention held April 8 in Awka, the Anambra State capital, and Okoye at the state congress held two days earlier. Though both events were approved and supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INC), they were dismissed by the party’s former National Chairman, Chief Victor Umeh, whose faction lodged the law suit.

In a statement he released late last night, Okwu expressed surprise that the court could give such an order without those sued being aware of it. He vowed that the order “will not stand.”

Said Okwu in the short statement posted on his Facebook wall: “There is pending before the Federal High Court Abuja Division at Court 7 two cases against us by Victor Umeh and his agents. We were stunned that yesterday these gangsters in a complete abuse of court process and fundamental rights of the respondents, stole into the FHC Division at Awka of all places, obtained a jankara order restraining us from parading as the legitimate leadership of APGA. This order will not stand. I want to reassure all those who have expressed confidence in us that darkness will never succeed over light. The struggle will continue.”

•Photo shows Maxi Okwu.