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A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove Hamza Al-Mustapha’s name as the presidential candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) for the 2023 general elections.
Al-Mustapha was the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to former military head of state, late Gen. Sani Abacha, who died in office in June 1998.
Justice Zainab Abubakar, gave the order removing Al-Mustapha’s name as a presidential candidate, in a judgement delivered on Friday, but made available on Monday.
In the judgement, the judge invalidated all the lists of nominees, including Al-Mustapha’s name, submitted to INEC by a factional chairman of the party, Kenneth Udeze.
The court held that Udeze, whose faction of AA presented Al-Mustapha to INEC as the party’s presidential candidate, was not the authentic chairman of the party.
Justice Abubakar declared that the plaintiff, Adekunle Omoaje, is the authentic national chairman of the party, adding that INEC should publish his lists of nominees for various offices for the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
Al-Mustapha had emerged the party’s presidential candidate at a convention held in Abuja, in June.
He defeated Samson Odupitan to emerge the party’s presidential candidate in the primary election.
His name and the rest of the party’s nominees vying for various offices in the upcoming 2023 general elections were subsequently submitted to INEC by Udeze.
But Omoaje filed a suit on September 30, urging the court to compel INEC to recognise his list of candidates over the one submitted by his rival, Udeze, for next year’s general elections.
Upholding the plaintiff’s argument, the judge ordered INEC to disregard Udeze’s list of candidates, including Al-Mustapha’s name as the party’s presidential flagbearer.
The judge subsequently ordered INEC “to upload and display the names of the applicant’s candidates for the 2023 general elections which had been forwarded to the respondent (INEC) as its candidate(s) for the said general election.”