From Femi Mustapha, in Kaduna
The Action Alliance (AA) has expressed dismay that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, and the Commission have failed to upload the name of its National Chairman, Dr Adekunle Rufai Omoaje on the commission’s portal.
The National Secretary of the AA, Comrade Miller Ogwu Miller Orgwu stated this in a statement made available to newsmen, Thursday, in Kaduna.
The party therefore called on INEC to upload the name of Omoaje who is the authentic national chairman of the party on the commission’s portal and website without further delay.
He said the decision of Prof Mahmoud Yakubu led INEC to give recognition to an expelled member of the party was illegal as Udeze is not a recognized member of the party.
The appeal came on the heels of the Supreme Court judgment which upheld the suspension and subsequent expulsion of Mr Kenneth Udeze whom INEC erroneously recognized as the national chairman of the party.
Recall that Udeze and the former National Secretary of the party, Mr James Vernibe had since been expelled from the party, a position which was substantiated by different courts including the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
Orgwu, therefore urged INEC to rescind its decision and accord the recognition of the national chairman of the Action Alliance to Dr. Adekunle Rufai Omoaje, having been duly elected at the elective national convention of the party held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, and also won different cases instituted at different levels up to the supreme court level.
The AA national secretary said it is an aberration for INEC to give recognition to Udeze as the national chairman of the party, saying the action of INEC was against the judgment of the Supreme Court.
He argued that the electoral umpire has shown bias in the way and manner it handles leadership issues affecting the Action Alliance, and therefore called for restraint and caution from the INEC chairman and the commission at large.
Orgwu alleged that INEC had on different occasions demonstrated bias in the leadership issues affecting the party as he was denied entry to the commission during a meeting called by the commission for a briefing on the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States.
He said an expelled member of the party, James Vernibe was allowed entry into the meeting while he was denied, based on the instructions of the INEC chairman who he alleged showed interest in Udeze and his team of expelled members of the AA.
“It has become imperative to call the attention of the whole world to the biased acts being perpetrated by the INEC chairman in particular and the commission as a whole. The national chairman of the Action Alliance is Hon (Dr) Adekunle Rufai Omoaje and this was substantiated by the Supreme Court. We are therefore taken aback on why the electoral umpire will still accord undue recognition to another person,” he lamented.
He cited the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abeokuta, Court of Appeal, Abuja, and the Supreme Court as evidence to prove that Omoaje is the recognized national chairman of the AA, stressing that all the courts upheld the expulsion of Udeze from the party and gave credence to the emergence of Omoaje as the recognized and authentic national chairman of the party.
Orgwu therefore called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the INEC to upload the name of Dr Adekunle Rufai Omoaje on the commission’s portal as the national chairman of the AA, just as he called for recognition of Omoaje by INEC.
