Delta Reps: PDP declared winner as Tribunal sack LP candidate Ngozi Okolie

The election of Mr. Ngozi Okolie, who represents the Aniocha/Oshimili Constituency in the House of Representatives, has been declared invalid by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, which is located in Asaba, Delta State.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced that Ngozi Okolie of the Labour Party, LP, had won the federal constituency’s House of Representatives election on February 25.

However, Ndidi Elumelu, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the recently-retired minority leader of the House of Representatives, submitted a plea to the tribunal asking it to disqualify Okolie.

Elumelu claimed in the petition with file number EPT/DL/HR/06/2023 that Okolie was not duly supported by the Labour Party and that he did not retire from holding public office.

In its decision, the three-member tribunal panel led by Justice A.Z. Mussa dismissed Okolie and recognized Ndudi Elumelu, who finished second in the poll, as the election’s winner.

The tribunal determined that Okolie was not a party member as of May 28, 2022, the date the primary was allegedly held, and that the Labour Party had not properly supported him.

Additionally, it was decided in the petitioners’ favor that the second respondent (Okolie) did not resign from his position as an elected official in order to run for office.

After the decision, the petitioner’s attorney, Andrew Osemenem, spoke with reporters and stated: “The petitioner established his case on one foundation, and that is the ground of qualifying.

“That ground, we said through the witnesses and documents that the Labour Party candidate was not a member of the Labour Party as of 28th of May, 2022 when they purportedly held primaries for the National Assembly Election.

“We also proved and the tribunal agreed with us that there were no primaries, there was no sponsorship, and the Labour Party did not conduct any primary into the NASS.

“Sections 65 and 66 of the constitution require that for a person to be qualified to contest election into the House of Representatives, he must belong to a political party and must be sponsored by that political party.

“In this instance, Okolie, the tribunal found that he was not duly sponsored by the Labour Party because there were no primaries.

“The second ground is as we urged the tribunal, the tribunal also found that Okolie was in public office, he did not resign.”

He added that “for these two reasons his election was nullified in line with Section 135 of the Electoral Act, Elumelu who was the first runner up, has been declared and returned as winner of that election.”