Hearing in a suit seeking to stop the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, and his running mate, Pastor Isaac Idahosa, has been stalled due to a crisis in the Action Alliance (AA).
A faction of AA which filed the original suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja, led by Adekunle Rufai Omo-Aje and Ambassador Suleiman Abdulmalik, on Tuesday brought an application for a joinder.
Counsel to the faction, Oba Maduabuchi (SAN), submitted that the Kenneth Udeze-led executive of the party, which filed the original suit had been expelled as “confirmed by the Court of Appeal’s CA/ABJ/CV/189/2021 and INEC’s letter of August 9, 2019, and thus could not act on behalf of the Action Alliance.”
He further contended that Omo-Aje and Abdulmalik were the national chairman and national secretary of the party respectively.
The AA had filed the action joining INEC, NNPP, Kwankwaso and Idahosa over unlawful nomination. In the suit filed by its counsel, Ukpai Ukairo, asked the court to restrain INEC from accepting the nomination of Kwankwaso and Idahosa for the February, 2023, presidential election, having “ascertained that the NNPP did not submit their names at the close of nomination.”
Justice Emeka Nwite fixed September 19, for the hearing of the fresh application.
Meanwhile, the Legal Adviser of AA, Malachy Nwaekpe, has announced his resignation from the position and membership of the party.
