*Police Invitation Experiences Delays*
By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
The Office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Monitoring Unit has extended an invitation to the National Chairman of the Action Alliance (AA) party, Hon. Adekunle Omo-Aje. This invitation is in response to his alleged refusal to withdraw a petition at the appeal court challenging the election of Benjamin Kalu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In response, the AA National Chairman stated, “The intimidations from the Deputy Speaker must cease, and if anything untoward were to happen to me, he should be held responsible for it.”
In a letter of invitation dated October 5, 2023, with reference number: CR: 3000/CIU/FIB/FHQ/ABJ/VOLT/389, addressed to the AA Chairman, the police have invited Omo-Aje to appear at their office in Abuja on Thursday (12-10-2023) for questioning. He stands accused of criminal conspiracy, impersonation, forgery, and making threats to life.
However, a source informed the media on Thursday night that Omo-Aje refused to honor the invitation out of fear of a conspiracy and unjust detention.
“No, he wasn’t at the police headquarters today; we understand the Deputy Speaker’s plan was to detain the Chairman to prevent his appearance in the Court of Appeal. After the initial publication, the Deputy Speaker reached out and asked Omo-Aje to withdraw the case in court. He accused the Chairman of embarrassing him in the media and requested a rejoinder, but the Chairman refused,” a high-ranking AA member stated.
“Benjamin Kalu sent various monarchs, politicians, and others to him, but he turned them all down and insisted that the case would not be withdrawn or a rejoinder issued through any media organization. This is how he attempted to have our former National Chairman, Kenneth Udeze, who had been expelled from the party, go to the tribunal and withdraw the case, even though he was not the one who filed it. He took another individual to the tribunal to use our candidate’s name in the election along with Kenneth to withdraw the case. This is why we appealed the matter. He does not want the Chairman to appear in the Court of Appeal; he wants him jailed, and he is using the police as the security agency of choice.”
The AA party has been mired in a leadership crisis leading up to the 2023 general elections.
In a judgment delivered on November 4, 2022, Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Federal High Court ruled that INEC should recognize Omo-Aje as the party’s national chairman. The court also ordered INEC to disregard all the candidates submitted by Udeze, who had been removed as the party’s chairman by another court.
It should be noted that Omo-Aje had filed a notice of appeal challenging the judgment of the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Umuahia, Abia State, which upheld the election of Kalu.
The party had petitioned the tribunal due to INEC’s failure to include the name of its candidate for the Bende Federal Constituency of Abia State on the ballot. The party had chosen Ifeanyi Chukwuka as its candidate for the constituency.
In his address, Daniel Anya, counsel for the AA candidate, had requested the tribunal to annul Kalu’s election because of the exclusion of the AA’s name and logo from the ballot during the poll.
However, the tribunal issued two conflicting court judgments upholding the Deputy Speaker’s election. While the petition was filed by the Omo-Aje-led AA leadership, a three-member panel of judges, led by Samson Paul-Gang, reportedly dismissed the case because another faction of the party, led by Kenneth Udeze, claimed they never filed or authorized any legal action against Kalu. The first judgment noted that the case was dismissed after the petitioner and AA requested its withdrawal. Another judgment released by the lower court two days later revealed that it was dismissed due to the factional chairman’s application, Udeze. Unsatisfied with these outcomes, the AA party led by Omo-Aje approached the appellate court.
