Tribunal Sacks Ngozi Okolie of LP, declaring Ndudi Elumelu of PDP winner Of Reps seat in Delta
The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Delta State has declared Ndudi Elumelu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the 2023 House of Representatives election for Aniocha-Oshimili Federal Constituency.
The tribunal in a judgement on Monday, nullified the election of Ngozi Okolie of the Labour Party (LP), who was declared the winner of the February 25 House of Representatives election in the federal constituency by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
In a 107-page judgment that lasted over five hours, the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice A.Z. Mussa, declared that the LP candidate was wrongfully declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The immediate past Minority Leader of the 9th House of Representatives and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ndudi Elumelu, filed a petition before the tribunal praying it to disqualify Okolie.
Elumelu had in his petition marked EPT/DL/HR/06/2023, argued that Okolie was not properly sponsored by the Labour Party (LP) and that he did not resign his position as a public office holder.
The tribunal upheld the prayer of the petitioners that Okolie was not duly sponsored by the LP as he was not a member of the party as of May 28, 2022, when the primary was purportedly held.
The tribunal also held that Okolie did not properly resign from public office to contest the elections.
Elumelu’s lawyer, Andrew Osemenem said: “The petitioner founded his petition on one ground, and that is the ground of qualification.
“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.”
“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”. he added.
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