The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Delta State, has voided the election of a member of the house of representatives, Mr Ngozi Okolie.
Ngozi Okolie who is of the Labour Party, LP, represents Aniocha/Oshimili Constituency in the House of Representatives.
He was declared the winner of the February 25 House of Representatives election in the federal constituency by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
But a former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ndudi Elumelu, approached the Tribunal, seeking an order of the Panel to disqualify Okolie.
Elumelu, in the petition marked EPT/DL/HR/06/2023, claimed that Okolie was neither properly nominated by the Labour Party nor did he resign his position as a public office holder.
The three-member tribunal panel headed by Justice A.Z. Mussa, in it’s ruling on Monday, 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 Labour Party and that he was not a member of the party as of May 28, 2022, when the primary was purportedly held.
It further resolved in favour of the petitioners that the second respondent, (Okolie) did not resign from public office to contest the elections.
