Members of the African Action Congress led by Omoyele Sowore and Chief Leonard Ezenwa, occupied the headquarters of INEC in Abuja on Monday to counter each other.
The Sowore group is seeking recognition as original owners of the party whereas INEC has already recognised the Ezenwa as the chairman of the party.
The protests which started around 10:30 am on Monday was as a result of leadership conflict within the party.
Leonard- led faction protested with inscriptions on their placards “Sowore is not our Chairma, AAC Executive and members pass confidence vote on Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, and declare Sowore as Impostor, arrest Sowore the impostor” among others.
On the other hand, Sowore supporters have inscriptions such as “INEC stop using AAC as for your electoral fraud, we reject imposition of Leonard as Chairman, INEC leave AAC alone, we demand electoral reform in Nigeria, AAC rejects the imposition of state sponsored usurpers by INEC” written on their placards.
According to the Leader of Leonard faction, Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, his faction is demanding arrest and prosecution of Sowore and therefore stopping him from parading himself as the chairman or a member of AAC.
He said that Sowore has been expelled from the party due to his inability to lead according to democratic principles, intimidation and embezzlement of party fund, the party therefore appointed him as the acting Nation Chairman of African Actions Congress.
He said that his appointment as the Chairman of the party was one of the decisions of the National Executive Council during their Meeting in Owerri.
Dr. Leonard added that Sowore approached the federal high court to revert his expulsion from the party but failed as the federal High court certified and upheld his position o as the acting Nation Chairman of the party.
The leader of the Sowore- led faction, Omoyele Sowore on the other hand countered the claim of the Leonard led faction stating that he is the rightful chairman of the party.
When interviewed by the media, Sowore maintained that he founded and registered the party with the INEC in 2018. He said the conflict arose when the government wanted to hijack the party through Leonard- led faction in which they did not succeed.
According to him, due to their failure to hijack the party, they arrested him in August 2019 and he was detained. While in detention, the party organized a fraudulent convention through which he was expelled from the party he created.
Sowore stated that his faction has delivered a letter to the INEC, giving them seven days Ultimatum to restore the party to the original owners and as well release their members that were illegally detained by the security agents.
He said that National Executive Council meeting of the party held in Owerri was fraudulent and illegal and therefore described the court order which maintained his expulsion from the party as fraudulent because the order was driven by the decision of the Fraudulent NEC meeting.