The background facts, agreed to by the parties, were summarized by the Federal Court of Appeal in its judgment as follows:
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"1.
Alhaji Mohammed Goni (hereinafter called the 1st respondent) was elected as the Governor of Borno State in the 1979 general elections on the platform of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (hereinafter called the G.N.P.P.).
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2.
The 1st respondent became a member of the Unity Party of Nigeria (hereinafter called the U.P.N.) before the expiration of his term of office as Governor.
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3.
Following disagreement within the G.N.P.P. the party split into two factions, the one led by Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim and which was subsequently recognized by the Federal Electoral Commission, the appellant (hereinafter called FEDECO) and the other led by Dr. Shettima Mustapha, the faction to which the 1st respondent belonged.
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4.
The Shettima Mustapha faction does not recognise the national officers and governing body of the G.N.P.P. as registered with FEDECO and has appointed its own national officers and governing body.
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5.
The Shettima Mustapha faction held separate meetings but subsequently broke into two further groups or factions. One group or faction, of which the 1st respondent was a prominent member, was in favour of merging with the U.P.N. The other group, headed by Shettima Mustapha subsequently merged with the Nigerian Peoples Party (hereinafter called the N.P.P.).
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6.
The members of the pro-U.P.N. group of the Shettima Mustapha faction joined up with the U.P.N. en masse."
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And so it was that the original Great Nigeria Peoples Party (hereinafter called G.N.P.P.) broke up into two factions, namely:
Governor Goni was a member of the Mustapha faction. Later, the Dr. Shettima Mustapha faction broke into a further two namely:
