The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has been asked to declare the Delta North Senatorial seat vacant, following the defection of Senator Ned Nwoko from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The court, in the suit marked: FCH/ABJ/CS/325/2025, was also urged to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a by-election in the Delta North Senatorial District within 60 days from the delivery of judgement in the matter.
The suit, filed by Senator Nwoko’s constituent and member of the PDP, Marvis Ossai, has Senator Nwoko, INEC, PDP and the Senate as defendants.
The plaintiff, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Johnmary Jideobi, wants the court to determine, “Whether, upon an intimate reading and complete understanding of Section 68(1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, and especially in view of the decision of the Nigerian Supreme Court in Abegundu v. Ondo State House of Assembly, (2015) 8 NWLR. Part 1461 Page 314, the 1st Defendant (Nwoko) who defected to the APC from the PDP (on which platform he was elected as a member of the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and where there was no faction at the time of his defection) ought not to have his seat in the Senate declared vacant by this Honourable Court?”
Upon the determination of the question by the court, he prayed among other reliefs for, “An order directing INEC (the 2nd Defendant) to conduct a by-election in the Delta North Senatorial District of the Nigerian Senate within 60 days from the date of the delivery of judgement herein.
The plaintiff also prays for an order declaring vacant the seat of Ned Munir Nwoko and cancelling his Certificate of Return issued to him by INEC, as well as an order mandating Nwoko (1st Defendant), “To refund into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, forthwith, all the salaries, emoluments and allowances received by him since January 2025 until the date of the final judgement in this matter.”
“An order disqualifying the 1st Defendant from standing for election into any elective post under the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria until and unless he complies with every term of the judgement in this suit.”
“An order mandating the 4th Defendant (Senate) to immediately give effect to the judgement of this Honourable Court.”
In a five-paragraph affidavit deposed by one Ibrahim Isa, the plaintiff told the court that Senator Nwoko had, on January 30, resigned from the PDP which was the political party on whose platform he was elected to occupy the Delta North Senatorial seat till 2027.
According to the plaintiff, who told the court that he is from Oshimili North Local Government Area in the Delta North Senatorial District, Nwoko’s continued stay in office after his defection would amount to a gross violation of the Constitution, adding that, “Since when the 1st Defendant decamped from the PDP up to the present moment of initiating the instant suit, there has never been any division in the national Leadership of the PDP.”
“That the ideology of the 1st Defendant’s new party, APC, to which the 1st Defendant now fully subscribes, does not bear any similarity or represent the political philosophy of the PDP (which is the basis upon which the plaintiff resolved to cast his vote for and elected the Defendant in 2023).”
“That the conduct of the 1st Defendant in defecting from the PDP to the APC has dealt a major blow to the fortunes of the plaintiff’s party, the PDP. The conduct of the 1st Defendant being challenged herein, if not condemned and overturned by this Honourable Court, will continue to encourage political harlotry, legislative rascality, and destroy the reasons for the laws made to regulate the defection of National Assembly Members by the Constitution of Nigeria itself.”
“That the continuous stay of the 1st Defendant at the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria no longer represents the plaintiff’s interest or that of thousands of other members of our constituency who voted him in on the basis of our faith in our party’s manifesto, which they believed the 1st Defendant was capable of representing in the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“That time is of the greatest essence in the instant application. It will be in the interest of justice for this Honourable Court to grant the prayers contained on the face of this Originating Summons,” the affidavit further read.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit, as it is yet to be assigned to any judge.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then