The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, narrowly avoided arrest by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force after partially complying with a Federal High Court judgment directing him to restore the leadership of the Action Alliance (AA) on the commission’s portal.
The order, issued by Justice Funmilola Demi-Ajayi of the Federal High Court, Osogbo, Osun State, mandated Yakubu to reinstate Adekunle Rufai Omoaje as National Chairman of AA, along with members of the party’s National Executive Committee elected at its October 7, 2023 national convention in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Last Monday, Justice Demi-Ajayi had given the INEC chairman seven days to implement the ruling or face arrest by the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.
The court also ordered INEC to upload the names of all state chairmen elected under Omoaje’s leadership, a directive that the commission fully complied with.
However, INEC was accused of only “partial compliance,” as it uploaded the NEC members’ names but left out Omoaje’s as National Chairman.
The commission also failed to include the national secretariat address of the Omoaje-led executive, while the name of expelled former chairman, Kenneth Udeze, still appeared on the portal.
This development prompted the party to take fresh legal action. INEC filed a motion claiming compliance, but the Action Alliance countered with an affidavit deposed to by its Osun chairman, Mr Araoye Oyewole, insisting that Yakubu and INEC had failed to obey the ruling fully.
In the affidavit dated October 2, 2025, the party argued that the commission’s action fell short of the clear court orders.
According to the affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by Oyewole, “the judgment of the Court and orders made therein have not been fully complied with by the judgment debtors. The judgment debtors only partially complied with the judgment and orders of the court in suit number FHC/OS/CS/194/2024.
“While it is true that the names of all the state chairmen of the Action Alliance elected under Hon Adekunle Rufai Omoaje have been restored back to the INEC state portal, the part of the judgment that specifically mandated the judgment creditors to respect all judgments in favour of Hon Adekunle Rufai Omoaje was not complied with by the judgment debtors.”
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