Tribunal Passes Judgement On Ned Nwoko’s Election Victory, Others

The National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Asaba, the Delta State capital, has affirmed Senator Ned Nwoko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the lawful winner of the Delta North Senatorial Election conducted on February 25, 2023.

Naija News understands that Senator Peter Nwaoboshi of the All Progressive Congress (APC) had filed a petition before the court challenging Nwoko’s election.

However, the three-man Tribunal led by Justice Catherine Ogunsola dismissed the petition and awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioner.

Also, the Tribunal dismissed a petition filed by Ken Kanmma of the Labour Party (LP) for lack of merit.

The court, in a unanimous judgment, 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.

Rerun Election

Also, the Tribunal on Thursday (today), 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.

Naija News reports that Diden and his party, in their petition, prayed the court to void INEC’s declaration of Onowakpo-Thomas as senator-elect on the grounds that he “was not duly elected by a 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 to collate the results of the election conducted in Warri South Local Government Area to the lawful votes recorded in favour of the parties and declare the winner of the election based on the collation.

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