Court put on hold to senator Ned Nwoko’s election victory seeks re-run

Ned Nwoko of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) senator representing Delta North, who won the February 25, 2023 senatorial district election has been ruled out by the Delta State National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Asaba, the Delta State capital

The three-man Tribunal led by Justice Catherine Ogunsola dismissed the petition filed by Ken Kanmma of the Labour Party (LP) for lack of merit.

Delivering the unanimous judgment, the Tribunal held that the petitioner failed to prove his case as he could not tender before the Tribunal any relevant document to prove a case of non-compliance as contained in the petition.

Tribunal also dismissed a petition of the All Progressive Congress (APC) petition against Nwoko filed by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi. The petition was dismissed by the Tribunal and a cost of N500,000 awarded against the petitioner.

Mean while, the court ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election within a period of 90 days in a petition brought against the victory of APC candidate, Joel Onowakpo-Thomas by PDP candidate, Michael Diden in the Delta South Senatorial District poll.

Diden and his party in their petition pled with the court to ruled out INEC’s declaration of Onowakpo-Thomas as senator-elect on the grounds that he “was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election and that his election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.

The petitioners, amongst others, are seeking an order of the Tribunal collating the results of the election conducted in Warri South Local Government Area to the legal votes recorded in favor of the parties and declare the winner of the election based on the collation.

The Tribunal agreed with the claim of the petitioner consequently declared a rerun only in Warri South council where the election was reportedly cancelled.