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LAGOS – Barrister Kenneth Udeze, the Nationwide Chairman of Motion Alliance (AA), has threatened to begin contempt professionalceedings towards Prof. Joash Amupitan, the Chairman of the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Commission (INEC), over the fee’s continued failure to adjust to Court of Appeal judgments recognising his leadership of the social gathering.
Chief Udeze, who spoke solely to Sunday Independent, maintained that the Abuja Judicial Division of the Court of Appeal has, on a number of occasions since January 2024, dominated in favour of his management in a protracted inner dispute with a rival faction led by Adekunle Rufai Omoaje.
Udeze listed 5 separate rulings, together with a January 2024 judgment dismissing an attraction by the Omoaje camp, a September 2024 judgment affirming him as Nationwide Chairman, a November 2024 ruling in a associated swimsuit, an April 2026 ruling from the Makurdi Judicial Division, and a July 2026 ruling dismissing an utility by the Omoaje faction searching for to vary the social gathering’s legal illustration in a separate attraction.
He pressured: “The import of those concurrent judgments is obvious and unambiguous: the management of Chief Barr. Kenneth Udeze is the one legitimate, subsisting, and legally recognised management of Motion Alliance,” including that “another declare is with out authorized impact.”
He disclosed his authorized group had written to INEC in Might and July 2026, attaching licensed copies of the judgments and demanding that the fee reinstate his management’s particulars on its web site, however that INEC had neither responded nor acted greater than two months later.
Citing Part 287(2) of the 1999 Constitution, which mandates that Court of Appeal decisions be enforced by all authorities, Udeze argued that INEC was legally certain to adjust to the rulings.
“We ask: how does a Professor of Regulation and Senior Advocate of Nigeria who heads INEC justify disobedience of legitimate, subsisting and binding judgments and ruling of the Court of Appeal,” he mentioned, including that Motion Alliance would “without additional delay” begin contempt proceedings towards Amupitan over the Commission’s non-compliance.
He additionally known as on the INEC chairman to “publicly clarify to Nigerians” the fee’s position and demanded the immediate restoration of his management’s recognition on INEC’s platforms.
The dispute over Motion Alliance’s management has run via Nigerian courts for greater than two years.
The Court of Appeal’s Abuja Division has repeatedly dominated in Udeze’s favour in proceedings involving the Omoaje faction, together with the July 2026 ruling he cited, by which the appellate court docket described an utility by the Omoaje camp as an abuse of court docket course of.
The rival faction, nevertheless, disputes Udeze’s account of the underlying management dispute. Omoaje has beforehand mentioned his faction’s Nationwide Suppose Tank committee, which he described because the social gathering’s highest decision-making organ, suspended and later expelled Udeze, a place he mentioned courts had upheld in circumstances Udeze himself introduced.
Omoaje had additionally known as for an investigation into Udeze over allegations of impersonation relating to social gathering membership data offered earlier than the courts.
INEC, for its half, has previously acknowledged it couldn’t record Omoaje as chairman, whereas the Court of Appeal judgment recognising Udeze remained subsisting, although Motion Alliance has individually accused the commission of inconsistency in the way it has handled the matter.
