Tribunal nullifies LP candidate’s election, PDP’s Elumelu wins

Justice A.Z. Mussa disqualified Okolie and declared Elumelu, the winner of the election.

The National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Delta State has nullified the election of Ngozi Okolie of the Labour Party (LP).

Okolie, who was declared winner of the February 25 House of Representatives election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) represents the people of Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency in the lower chamber. He was declared winner with 53,879 votes.

But Ndidi Elumelu, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 33,456 votes in the election filed a petition asking the court to disqualify Okolie.

In his petition, the immediate past Minority Leader of the House of Representatives argued that Okolie was not properly sponsored by the Labour Party and that he did not resign his position as a public office holder.

In its judgement, the three-member tribunal panel headed by Justice A.Z. Mussa disqualified Okolie and declared Elumelu, the winner of the election.

The court held that Okolie was not a member of the Labour Party as of May 28, 2022, when the party’s primary was held.

The court also held that Okolie did not resign from public office to contest the elections.

Speaking after the ruling, the petitioner's counsel, 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.

He said the court agreed that there were no primaries, there was no sponsorship, and the Labour Party did not conduct any primary into the NASS.