An application to annul the Action Alliance (AA) party leadership of Dr. Adekunle Rufai Omo-selection Aje’s of candidates on November 4 was denied by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Major Hamzat Al-Mustpha was one of the candidates produced by Kenneth Udeze. The court had on November 4 ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept the candidates submitted for next year’s general elections by the Omo-Aje leadership of the AA and to reject them (retired).
In a decision on Thursday, Justice Zainab Abubakar determined that Udeze’s application—who was fired as the party’s chairman—was unjustified and dismissed it.
Udeze, whose suspension and expulsion as the AA Chairman had been upheld in two judgments of the Court of Appeal, had applied to the Federal High Court, Abuja to set aside the November 4, 2022 judgment, claiming it was obtained by fraud and that he was still the party’s National Chairman.
In the November 4 judgment (which was also delivered by Justice Abubakar), the court ordered 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 Major Hamzat Al-Mustpha, as presidential candidate.
In her ruling on Thursday, Justice Abubakar noted that, with the two subsisting judgments of the Court of Appeal and another decision by a Federal High Court in Abeokuta, Udeze cannot lawfully lay claim to being the Chairman of the party.
The two judgments of the Court of Appeal were delivered on January 7 and November 11 while the ruling by the Federal High Court in Abeokuta was delivered on September 8 2022 by Justice J. O. Abdulmalik in a suit marked: FHC/AB/CS/120/2022.
Justice Abubakar held that her earlier judgment delivered on November 4 was not obtained by fraud as claimed by Udeze.
The judge described Udeze as a busybody and meddlesome interloper, trying to interfere in the affairs of the party from which he was suspended and later expelled.