Former Attorney General of the Federation and current candidate of PDP in next year's governorship election in Benue State, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa has responded to the story published by The Mandate news in which quoted INEC as saying it will obey the Supreme Court ruling which banned him from holding public office in Nigeria and thus effectively disqualifying him from contesting the governorship elections. The former Attorney-General still insists that he remains eligible to contest the election. The development follows reports in the Nigerian media that the Supreme Court last September reaffirmed a Court of Appeal judgment which upheld the former AG's ban from holding public office in Nigeria. According to Global View magazine, one of the publications in a recent report, "In Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/2152/2026, four plaintiffs, David A. Ejembi, Aondoaver Teryila, Joseph Okpanachi and Benedict Akaazua Orkume, sued INEC, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Chief Aondoakaa as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively. "Their originating summons, filed September 9, 2026, asked the court to interpret sections 235, 287(1) and 318(1) of the 1999 Constitution. They wanted a declaration that INEC must comply with the Supreme Court’s decision in Aondoakaa v. Obot (2022) 5 NWLR (Pt. 1824) 523 by stopping the former AGF from contesting the 2027 governorship election in Benue State." The report went on to say, "In a written address dated and filed September 28, 2026, INEC’s counsel, Idris Yakubu, Esq., of Beachcroft Solicitors, framed a single issue for determination: whether INEC is under a constitutional obligation to comply with the Supreme Court’s judgment. The commission answered that question in the affirmative." In a response to a whatsapp enquiry by The Mandate news about his reaction to the report, Aondoakaa said "Not true", explaining that, "I contested 2023 primaries with Gov. Alia and even took Alia to court up to court of appeal, before elders pressured me to withdraw my appeal from the Supreme Court." The former Attorney General accompanied the message with a report by one Aondoakaa Tersugh Daniel and titled 'Aondoakaa’s momentum gathers steam', dated 04/10/2026 which read, 'The ground is shifting beneath Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia, and the tremor is coming from the very people who built his house. Over the weekend, Benue indigenes resident in Lagos spoke with one voice. They adopted Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, as their preferred candidate for 2027 and pledged to mobilise for him. Pause on that for a moment. This is the same group that stood solidly behind Alia in 2022/2023 and helped carry him to victory. They did not just walk away from him. They looked at his record and chose someone else. 'Similarly, during the 2022/2023 campaigns, the Alia Alliance played a pivotal role in financing and advancing the Alia project. But today, the Alia Alliance as it was known then appears to have collapsed. Its Board of Trustees Chairman, his deputy and several members have since declared their support for Aondoakaa. 'The trend is also evident among individuals who stood firmly behind Alia during the 2023 election. One prominent example is Dr Simon Ater, who contributed significantly, including financially, to the Alia campaign. Today, he is openly identified with the Aondoakaa project. He is not an isolated example. Several other individuals who stood by Alia during the 2023 election have quietly walked away from him and are now standing with Aondoakaa. The growing movement of former Alia supporters towards Aondoakaa is therefore becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss as an isolated development. 'This points to a broader sense of disappointment with the Alia administration rather than merely a smear campaign or some alleged conspiracy against Senator George Akume to manipulate the political stakes and undermine Alia. There is no denying that Alia has, over time, created serious friction with many of the political stakeholders who helped secure the gubernatorial ticket for him in 2022 and the victory that followed in 2023. Many of those same stakeholders are no longer in his camp today. 'There is something fundamentally troubling when people who were instrumental to a man's political emergence and electoral victory eventually become the very people walking away from him. It raises serious questions about what happened between the man and those who helped bring him to power. Perhaps it is a failure to remember the road by which one arrived at the destination. Whatever the reason for Alia's estrangement from these individuals and political actors, one striking pattern is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: many of those who have fallen out with Alia are finding a new political home in Aondoakaa. 'These are not people who merely discovered Aondoakaa yesterday. Many were part of the political coalition, networks and support structures that made the 2023 victory possible. Their movement therefore carries political significance. In biblical language, when the glory departed from Eli's house, the name Ichabod was given to mark that departure. In the same figurative sense, one may ask whether the political spirit that once animated the Alia project has now departed. The difference is that this time, the political “Ichabod” is not being declared by an opponent; it is being written by the gradual departure of those who once stood closest to the project. 'Aondoakaa, meanwhile, is steadily consolidating the political space being vacated by Alia. The momentum is becoming increasingly visible, and the 2027 contest is beginning to take a different shape. Aondoakaa has come to stay.' He also forwarded a recent TVC footage of his hosting by the Lagos based group of Benue indigenes during which he solicited the group's support for the Benue governorship.

Posted: 2weeks ago

Author: Editor in Chief

Current date: 18 October 2026