Tunji Wusu –
On August 24, the Federal Court of Appeal’s Asaba Division will start hearing an appeal filed by Ngozi Okolie, a member of the Labour Party (LP) who represents the Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency, to overturn the decision of the lower court that proclaimed Ndudi Elumelu, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the winner.
Chike Onyemenam (SAN), Okolie’s legal representative, filed a nine-ground appeal to overturn the decision of the National Assembly/Legislative House Election Petition Tribunal presided over by Justice A. Z. Mussa.
Okolie is the appellant, while the respondents are joined by Elumelu (PDP), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and LP.
On July 24, Justice Mussa overturned Okolie’s (LP) election as member of the Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency.
The tribunal ruled that LP failed to sponsor Okolie since he was not a member on May 28, 2022, when the party’s primary election was held, and pronounced Ndudi the winner.
“An order setting aside the tribunal’s judgment and, in its place, an order dismissing the petition before the lower tribunal for failure of the petitioners (1st and 2nd respondents herein) to make out a prima facie case on same and, as a result, failing to establish the grounds for presenting same and facts pleaded in support of the said grounds as required by law,” Okolie requests.
“An order affirming that the appellant was declared the winner of the election and lawfully elected member of the House of Representatives for the Aniocha Oshimili Federal Constituency, having received the majority of the valid votes cast in the election, by INEC at the polls.
“An order holding that the original INEC nomination Form EC9 submitted by the Labour Party (2nd respondent at the tribunal) was said to be uploaded to INEC electronically, which INEC admitted that it subsequently received and published the name of the appellant as the Labour Party candidate for the election.”
(in September 2022) more than six months before the election, the court ruled that it was inadmissible to show that the Labour Party forwarded the appellant’s name to INEC as its candidate because the Certified True Copy of the Uploaded INEC Form EC9 was what should have been offered. The court went on to rule that because the Labour Party did not forward the appellant’s name to INEC as its candidate for the election, the party did not sponsor the appellant.
