The Adekunle Omo-Aje leadership of the Action Alliance (AA) has said it will write the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, as well as foreign embassies over the alleged failure of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise its candidates for the 2023 general elections despite valid court orders.
The AA National chairman, who spoke on the sidelines of a programme to mark his 69th birthday organised by party members on Tuesday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to call INEC, under the leadership of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to order.
“By next week, we are planning to stage a very massive protest to the National Assembly.
“Our lawyers are working on letters to all the embassies and organisations that partner with INEC.
“This next week, we will write the Attorney-General of the Federation first for his intervention.
“We are also calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, because of the good legacy he has already laid by signing the Electoral (Amendment) Bill into law, to please call Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to have respect for the judiciary.
“We don’t want Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to spoil this feat. He (Yakubu) has only performed his role as INEC boss, but he cannot act the role of the judiciary. He should respect the rule of law,” he said.
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Omo-Aje also said the failure of INEC to invite him to the recent meeting it had with political party chairmen, but invited Kenneth Udeze, the sacked AA chairman, instead, was lawless.
He assured all party candidates and supporters of getting justice, saying
“this is not a Banana Republic, whether Prof. Mahmood Yakubu likes it or not, there is a court judgment that ordered that I should be given a pin code to upload all our candidates.
“If he likes, he can hold it until election day, we will still meet at the tribunal.” He said.
“I know that if he didn’t respect court judgment, definitely, 2023 Election is in trouble.
Also speaking, the Presidential Candidate AA, Solomon-David Okanigbuan, said though INEC had refused to recognise his candidacy, that had not stopped his underground campaign.
He reminded that the Electoral Act, 2022, had a provision which talked about the cancellation of election where there was omitted of the name of the candidate who was supposed to participate in the process.
“There is room for that in the Electoral Act. So my advice to INEC is to quickly do the needful so that this does not jeopardise all its plans and activities that they put in place for the election.
Prof Yakubu shouldn’t skip any part of the Electoral Act,” he said.
