Labour Party (LP) member representing Aniocha-Oshimili Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Ngozi Okolie, has described the recent court judgement annulling his election as ‘unlawful’.
According to Okolie, the judgement had no legal basis and he could not really phantom the reasons for the court’s judgement.
“They annulled the election based on very frivolous reasons that nobody can comprehend for now. So I have decided to go on appeal just to at least try and strengthen democracy in our time. Hopefully we get an appeal, the judges will either interpret the law differently or uphold what they said.
“What they insinuated cannot be true. PDP is a funny party. When I declared for Labour Party, I honestly didn’t want to resign but out of their hatred and jealousy they stopped my payment and removed my name from the payroll, they did it themselves. So I actually waited for my August salary but I didn’t see it.
“So I now called the paymaster, he said they have instructed him to remove my name from the payroll, I said okay, and that was how I went to tender my resignation. They have a witness that came down and testified that they removed me from their payroll.
“I’m not a public servant, so I don’t know which law they used to judge. It’s appalling. I thought our justice system was blind, but now it wears a dark goggle with a deep pocket in its side” he said.
Recall that the court on Monday nullified the election of Okolie of the LP, who was declared winner of the February 25 House of Representatives election in the federal constituency by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
However, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ndudi Elumelu, filed a petition before the tribunal praying it to disqualify Okolie, saying that he did not resign his position as a public office holder.
As a result, the tribunal ruled that Okolie had not been a member of the Labour Party (LP) by May 28, 2022, the date of the primary election, and thus, the tribunal declared the runner-up in the February 25, 2023 National Assembly election, Elumelu as the winner.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Labour Party, LP, in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, on Tuesday in Abuja, said it’s shocked over the court’s judgement saying it’s not in consonance with the law.
The party further disclosed that it is going ahead to appeal the judgement. “We note that the judgement is clearly inconsistent with the position of the law already settled even by superior courts, including the Supreme Court.
“The issue of nomination of candidates as well as membership are internal affairs of the party beyond the jurisdiction of courts. Only a political party can determine who its members are and who their flag bearer for an election should be.
“The courts have in a plethora of cases held that the court has no jurisdiction to intervene in the internal affairs of a political party,” the party’s statement read.
While alleging that powerful people in Delta State were involved in the matter, it urged supporters to keep calm as the party would ensure that none of its mandates would be snatched away.
