The Action Alliance, AA, has threatened to stage a protest at the National Assembly for the alleged exclusion of its candidates from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s list for this year’s elections.
Dr Adekunle Omo-Aje, the national chairman of the party, in a press briefing on Saturday in Abuja, lamented that in spite of various court orders against the recognition of the list of candidates submitted by the sacked national chairman of the party, Mr Kenneth Udeze, INEC has failed to upload the names of all the candidates presented to it by his leadership in this year’s polls.
According to him, the action might jeopardise the good intentions of having free, fair and credible elections in the country.
He assured that members of the party shall move to the National Assembly to submit their protest letter and inform the lawmakers that if the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, is not called to order, there will be negative consequences on the outcome of the 2023 elections.
He further assured: “We shall use all legal channels to ensure we get justice against any form of exclusion from presenting our candidates for elections, and every such election stands the chances of annulment by law.”
Omo-Aje also alleged that Mahmood Yakubu is covertly orchestrating a clandestine plan against the 2023 elections, saying that Action Alliance would not fold its arms and watch the country’s democracy rubbished.
He said up to June 2019, Udeze was the party’s national chairman before he was suspended and expelled, stressing that he (Omo-Aje) emerged as the national chairman after a national elective convention conducted in February 2020 and monitored by INEC officials.
He noted that Kenneth Udeze instituted several court cases urging the courts to declare him national chairman of the party but lost all.
He lamented that the electoral umpire is bent on excluding Action Alliance from the coming 2023 general elections, in spite of fulfilling all INEC electoral guidelines and requirements according to the Nigerian constitution.
He added that it has gotten to the level for Action Alliance to come out in the open and make categorical statements loud and clear to the hearing of all concerned citizens of this country in order to ensure orderliness in the process.
According to him, the crux of the press briefing was to draw the attention of relevant authorities and the nation in particular to the miscarriage of justice by INEC, as actively promoted by its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
