Setback For Labour Party As Tribunal Sacks Delta Rep, Declares Elumelu Winner

The Labour Party has suffered its first post election defeat in Delta State after the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in the state nullified the victory of its House of Representatives member, Ngozi Okolie, who was declared winner of Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency in February.

In the judgement delivered on Monday, the tribunal declared Hon Ndudi Elumelu the winner of the election.

Okolie was announced the winner of the February election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, posting 53,879 votes to defeat his closest rival and then incumbent representative, Hon Ndudi Elumelu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The INEC had announced Elumelu as polling 33,456 votes while Tony Nwaka of the All Progressives Congress, APC, scored 11, 712 votes.

The tribunal held that a key factor for consideration was sponsorship of candidates by their respective political parties, noting that Okolie was not duly sponsored by the Labour Party.

According to the tribunal, Okolie was not a member of the party as at May 28, 2022 when the primary was purportedly held.

THE WHISTLER reports that almost all candidates of the Labour Party had defected from other parties one week to the end of the window allowed by the INEC for primaries.

They subsequently got an automatic ticket to contest elections with the party also extending its primaries across the state in emergency fashion.

It’s the first test case which could have profound ramification for the party across the country concerning areas the party won and where it’s also pursuing its cases to retrieve what the party called “stolen mandates.”

The party’s presidential candidate in the last election, Peter Obi, is also contesting the victory of Bola Tinubu, of the APC, who was declared the winner and returned elected.