The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Delta State, has nullified the election of the member representing Aniocha/Oshimili Constituency in the House of Representatives, Ngozi Okolie.
Okolie, of the Labour Party (LP), was declared the winner of the February 25 House of Representatives election in the federal constituency by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
But the immediate past Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ndudi Elumelu, filed a petition before the tribunal, seeking Okolie’s disqualification.
Elumelu, in the petition no EPT/DL/HR/06/2023, argued that Okolie was not properly sponsored by the LP and that he did not resign his position as a public office holder.
The three-member tribunal panel headed by Justice A.Z. Mussa, in its ruling, disqualified Okolie and declared the runners-up in the election, Ndudi Elumelu, as the winner of the election.
The tribunal held that Okolie was not duly sponsored by the LP and that he was not a member of the party as of May 28, 2022, when the primary was purportedly held.
It also resolved in favour of the petitioners that the second respondent, (Okolie) did not resign from public office to contest the elections.
Speaking with newsmen after the ruling, the counsel of the petitioner, 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 reason 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.”
