NIGERIA’S third biggest party has split into factions after its first national convention ended with the election of two chairmen, party officials said this week. At the main convention of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Abuja, a faction led by Justice Minister Bola Ige elected former lawmaker Ahmed Abdulkadir as chairman. Simultaneously, another faction led by Olu Falae, the party’s candidate in February 1999 presidential elections, gathered in a hotel in Abuja to elect the party’s pre-convention chairman, Yussuf Mamman, a former diplomat. The Abdulkadir faction appeared to have the recognition of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission. – Reuters