Clement Idoko-Abuja
An opposition party, Action Alliance (AA), has disclaimed the purported adoption a former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate in the Saturday’s election.
National Chairman of AA, Dr Adekunle Omo-Aje, who issued a statement on Sunday in Abuja, insisted that the party neither had such arrangement nor was it planning to adopt any other person in place of its presidential candidate.
Recall that AA, led by the sacked national chairman, Mr Kenneth Udeze, alongside other four political parties, had, on Saturday, adopted Mr Abubakar as their presidential candidate for Feb. 25 poll.
Other parties included Allied Peoples Movement (APM), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP) and National Rescue Movement (NRM).
But while reacting to the claims, Omo-Aje said: “Our attention has been drawn to a fabrication and fraudulent arrangement, purportedly with some named political parties touching on stepping down for presidential candidate of People Democratic Party Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“We make bold here to say emphatically that our party, Action Alliance, has no such arrangement at all, nor was anything as such ever contemplated among our ranks.
“This is to further reiterate for the umpteenth time that our party, Action Alliance, is never thinking of any kind of collaboration with any political party or any candidate whatsoever.”
According to him, the party had warned the general public of the activities of some political scavengers assembled by the rascally and recalcitrant usurper, who has been adjudged as a “meddlesome interloper” by a High Court of the land.
“Kenneth Obideche Udeze is a parasite that feeds on the blood of docile and gullible politician he is a merchant of Venice.
“As a political party of repute, Action Alliance has hosted series of World Press Conferences to alert the general public that, Kenneth Obideche Udeze is not even a member of our party Action Alliance, let alone having any locus standi to speak or act for, or on behalf of the party anywhere, anytime.
“This, we did, to safe would-be victims of this fraudulent political venture from getting defrauded. If anyone thereafter gets entangled in his antics and scam expertise, our party, Action Alliance will be absolved of any associated guilt.
“Our party, Action Alliance, has a presidential candidate that is neither being withdrawn nor dropped. So, it is appalling to think that some political scouts without circumspect could still get scammed by this certified interloper, as if they were charmed to blind folds.
“For a sense of duty, but not of responsibility, we are saying here again that the general public should flee from this recalcitrant political scammer called Kenneth Udeze.
“To buttress our points here, we provide extract from judgments of Federal High Court and Court of Appeal robbing him in his apparent odyssey as a usurper, an interloper, and a meddlesome busybody,” he said.
Omo-Aje noted that in the declarative judgment of Justice Zainab Abubakar of FHC 2 Abuja, INEC was ordered to avail them of the pin code to upload their candidates, and the pin code to be used for uploading their party agents.
“Instead, INEC under the leadership of Prof. Mahmud Yakubu released this pin code to Kenneth Obideche Udeze, who in turn collected names from PDP and uploaded them as Action Alliance agents.
“Like Kenneth, none of these agents are members of our party and are unknown to us as a party,” he said.
He stressed that Action Alliance, as a party under his leadership since 15th February, 2020 is still the leadership known to the party, and never at any time stepped down as the National Chairman.
“Kenneth Obideche Udeze is not alone in this obnoxious agenda; he has a sponsor in the man at the helm of affairs of INEC in the person of Professor Mahmud Yakubu to further disenfranchise Action Alliance in the coming election,” he said.
Justice Zainab Abubakar of a FHC had, on Nov. 4, 2022 and Dec. 22, 2022, declared that Udeze was not a member of AA, hence, he cannot represent the party nor institute any legal action on its behalf.
Also, Justice Binta Nyako of a FHC had, on Jan. 20 and Jan. 23 in separate judgments, decsribed Udeze as “a busybody and meddlesome interloper” who disturbed the peace of the courts and was fined N1 million each.
Besides, two Court of Appeal judgments delivered on Jan. 7, 2022 and Nov. 11, 2022, affirmed that Udeze, having been suspended and expelled from AA, was no longer a member of the party.
While Mr Solomon-David Akanigbuan emerged as presidential candidate of Omo-Aje-led leadership of AA, Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd.) was elected as presidential candidate of Udeze-led leadership of the party.
