Razaq Bamidele
The seeming crisis rocking one of the registered political parties in the country, the Action Alliance (AA), appears to have been settled eventually as the National Chairman of the Party, Hon. (Dr) Adekunle Rufai Omo-Aje has confidently declared that, “there has never been factions in the party.”
The Ede, Osun State-born grass-roots politician in a telephone conversation Tuesday morning asserted that since he was elected on February 15, 2020 for four year tenure, he has never for one day ceased to be the National Chairman of the party adding authoritatively that, “since then till when I am speaking with you now, I have been in charge and still in charge.”
According to him, the party election that brought him to power was supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), “and the Commission issued me a Certificate of Returns as well as INEC Reports of Supervision.” And the mandate, according to the party’s constitution is for four years. The tenure is renewable for another four years. The AA constitution is however silent on how many times a Chairman can contest for same office.
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When asked about of one the members, Mr. Keneth Udeze who has been parading himself as the National Chairman of the party, Omo-Aje said several judicial pronouncements by the courts of competent jurisdiction have taken care of that, referring to the recent judgement of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday that reaffirmed him as the authentic National chairman of the Action Alliance (AA).
Checks revealed that the same court had earlier ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize Omo-Aje as the national chairman of the party and give recognition to all the names of candidates he has earlier submitted for various elective positions in the 2023 general elections.
The court also ordered electoral umpire to paste the names of the candidates submitted by Omo-Aje in all its offices and also post the names on its website.
Omo-Aje, who did not say much on the member parading himself as the party’s National Chairman just volunteered that, “the said member has been expelled from the party after a due process, adding that, “the rest is history now as courts have taken care of the matter and we have continued to move forward as a progressive Party.”
Truly, checks further revealed that, the said member, Kenneth Udeze was not comfortable with the earlier ruling confirming Omo-Aje as the authentic National Chairman of the party, so he therefore approached the Federal High Court, Abuja to upturn the rulings.
But the court held that Udeze, having been expelled from the party lacks the right to institute any suit against the party or its leaders, insinuating that he (Udeze) is no more a member of the party.
Records show that, in her ruling, Justice Zanab Abubakar upheld the rulings of the Federal High Courts sitting in Abuja and Abeokuta which earlier gave recognition to Omo-Aje as the undisputed National Chairman of the Action Alliance (AA), holding further that held that it lacks the power to upturn the ruling of the Appeal Court which had upheld the expulsion of Udeze from the Party, a decision yet to be challenged by him (Udeze).
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Citing various authorities, Justice Abubakar was reported to have declared that Udeze is not a member of the Action Alliance and therefore has no moral or legal justification to challenge whatever is done in the party, therefore directing the INEC to recognize Omo-Aje as the national chairman of the party and as well recognize all candidates submitted by him by publishing their names on the INEC website and pasting same in all their offices.
It is against this backdrop that, the recognised national chairman of the party, Adekunle Rufai Omo-Aje, having hailed the judgement urged the INEC to obey court orders and respect the rule of law and prevent any action capable of jeopardizing the 2023 general elections.
When contacted for comments, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Comrade Olu Omotoso expressed gladness that, “a judgement in our favour was delivered by Justice Zanab Abubakar of the Federal High Court, Abuja,”
His words: “The Federal High Court 4 Abuja, has struck out the case instituted by Kenneth Udeze to set aside the Court Order directing INEC to release upload code to us. This was delivered last month to enable us upload particulars of our candidates around the nation onto INEC portal.
“The current judgement also affirmed the expulsion of Kenneth from Action Alliance (AA), in line with the Appeal Court judgements we already have. As a matter of fact, the court viewed that Kenneth is not a member of Action Alliance, hence his lack of statutes to institute any matter at all on behalf of the party.”
While congratulating the National Chairma, members of the party’s executives, members of the party as well as the party’s well-wishers across the globe on the land-mark judgement, Omotoso declared that, “Keeping our spirits high is a task that we all must embrace and undertake.”
