The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to remove Hamza Al-Mustapha’s name as the presidential candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) for the 2023 general elections.

Al-Mustapha was the Chief Security Officer to Nigeria’s late dictator, Sani Abacha, who died in office in June 1998.

Al-Mustapha had emerged the party’s presidential candidate at a party convention held in June in Abuja.

He defeated Samson Odupitan to emerge the party’s presidential candidate in the primary election.

In the verdict, the judge, Zainab Abubakar, invalidated all the lists of nominees, including Al-Mustapha’s name, submitted to INEC by a factional leader of the party, Kenneth Udeze.

The court held that Udeze, whose faction of AA presented Al-Mustapha to INEC as the party’s presidential candidate, was not the authentic leader of the party, so his lists of nominees for all offices were also not valid.

The judge upheld the plaintiff, Adekunle Omoaje, who instituted the suit, as the authentic national chairman of the party, and his lists of nominees as the party’s set of valid candidates for various offices for the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

Upholding the plaintiff’s case, the judge ordered INEC to disregard Udeze’s list of candidates, including Al-Mustapha’s name as the party’s presidential flag bearer, submitted for the 2023 general elections.