The Court of Appeal, Abuja has rejected an application by sacked chairman of Action Alliance (AA), Chief Kenneth Udeze, seeking to reverse the nullification of Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd) and others.

A three-member panel of the appellate court, led by its President, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, in a ruling, held that the appeal was defective, thus incompetent.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Al-Mustapha, a former aide to the late Gen. Sani Abacha, won the presidential primary conducted by the Udeze faction with a total of 506 votes, defeating Samson Odupitan, his only opponent, on June 9 in Abuja.

Justice Dongban-Mensem, in the lead ruling, held that Udeze was wrong to have initiated the appeal in the name of AA and also listed the party as respondent.

The judge said AA could not be an appellant and a respondent in the same appeal. The ruling was on the appeal marked: “CA/ABJ/PRE/ROA/CV/1472MI/2022, with which Udeze (who was suspended and later expelled) had sought to void the December 22, 2022 ruling of the Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja.”

NAN recollects that Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Abuja, FCT, on December 22, 2022, dismissed Udeze’s application to set aside the court’s November 4, 2022 judgment recognising candidates produced by the Dr Adekunle Rufai Omo-Aje leadership of the party.

Udeze, whose suspension and expulsion had been upheld in two judgments of the Court of Appeal, had applied to the FHC, Abuja to set aside the November 4 judgment, claiming it was obtained by fraud, insisting he was still the national chair.

In the November 4 judgment delivered by Justice Abubakar, the court ordered INEC to accept the list of candidates submitted to it by the Omo-Aje leadership of the AA and to discountenance the candidates submitted by Udeze, which Major Hamzat Al-Mustpha was a presidential candidate.

Also in her December 22 ruling, Justice Abubakar reaffirmed that, with the two subsisting judgments of the Court of Appeal and another decision by a FHC in Abeokuta, Udeze cannot lawfully lay claim to being the Chairman of the party.

The two judgments were delivered on January 7, 2022 and Noveber 11, 2022, while the ruling by the FHC in Abeokuta was delivered on September 8, 2022 by Justice J. O. Abdulmalik in a suit marked: FHC/AB/CS/120/2022.