Al-Mustapha and Others Rejected from Involvement in AA Election: Court Rules

Mr. Admin January 06, 2023

The Court of Appeal in Abuja disqualified Action Alliance (AA) presidential candidate Hamza Al-Mustapha and others on Thursday from running as party candidates in this year's elections.

Chief Kenneth Udeze, the ousted National Chairman of the Action Alliance (AA), had petitioned the court to put on hold the annulment of Al-Mustapha and other candidates' candidacies.

The appellate court's three-member panel was presided over by Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, who ruled that the appeal was flawed and incompetent.

On June 9, 2022, in Abuja, Al-Mustapha, a former advisor to the late Gen. Sani Abacha, defeated Samson Odupitan, his lone opponent, and won the presidential primary election organized by Chief Kenneth Udeze's group with a total of 506 votes.

The AA could not be both an appellant and a respondent in the same appeal, according to Justice Dongban-Mensem, who said that it was improper for Udeze to file the appeal in the AA's name and to include the party as a respondent in the lead decision.

In an appeal with the filing number CA/ABJ/PRE/ROA/CV/1472MI/2022, Udeze sought to have the Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja's decision of December 22, 2022, set aside.

Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Abuja FHC denied Chief Udeze's request to annul the court's decision to recognize the candidates put forth by the party's leadership under Dr. Adekunle Rufai Omo-Aje on November 4, 2022.

Udeze had applied to the Federal High Court, Abuja, to set aside the Nov. 4 judgment, claiming it was obtained by fraud and asserting that he was still the party's national chairman. The Federal High Court, Abuja, upheld the suspension and expulsion of Udeze as the AA chairman in two judgments of the Court of Appeal.

According to the judgment issued on November 4, 2022, by Justice Abubakar, the court had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, to accept the list of candidates submitted to it by the Omo-Aje leadership of the AA and to discountenance the candidates submitted by Udeze, which included Al-Mustpha, who was a presidential candidate.