The Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State, has ordered the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to arrest the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, for defying a subsisting court order in a leadership tussle involving the Action Alliance (AA).
Justice Funmilola Demi-Ajayi issued the ruling after finding that Yakubu and INEC failed to comply with an earlier judgment directing the commission to recognize all state chairmen elected under Adekunle Rufai Omoaje’s leadership of AA’s National Executive Committee (NEC). The court also imposed a fine of N100,000 on the INEC chairman.
The Action Alliance had pressed the court to enforce compliance, requesting Forms 48 and 49 against Yakubu while seeking his imprisonment for disobedience. Justice Demi-Ajayi gave INEC seven days to restore the names of the Omoaje-led executives on its portal or face immediate police enforcement.
The judgment affirmed that the party’s national convention, held on October 7, 2023, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, was validly conducted in line with the AA constitution and the Electoral Act, with INEC officials present.
Furthermore, the court declared that Kenneth Udeze, who was suspended and later expelled from the party, lacked any authority to act as AA’s chairman or represent the party before INEC. It directed the commission to stop recognizing Udeze and to immediately replace his name with Omoaje’s in all official records.
Criticizing INEC’s inconsistency in handling the matter, the court ruled that any other conventions aside from the October 2023 gathering remain invalid and of no effect.
