I will appeal tribunal judgement annulling my election, says LP’s Okolie

Mr. Ngozi Okolie, a member representing Aniocha-Oshimili Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives under the Labour Party, says he will appeal the tribunal judgement annulling his election.

Okolie made this known while addressing a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday.

Supreme News reports that the tribunal, in a judgement on Monday, nullified the declaration of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Ngozi Okolie, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of that election.

However, Okoliesaid that the judgement had no legal basis and pledged his readiness to appeal the judgement.

Okolierefuted the court's judgement that he contested the election while in office as against the constitution, stressing that he resigned before thirty days before the election as enshrined in the constitution.

He noted that a recent court verdict in the Atiku vs Tinubu, APC, ruled that issues of candidacy were the internal affairs of political parties.

“Before I contested the Feb. 25th election, the People’s Democratic Party Government in Delta state which I served had stopped my salary which followed my resignation.

Okolie emphasised that the election that brought him into office was the most credible in the state since the nation returned to Democratic Government.

“I didn’t rig any election, God is my witness, people came out enmass to vote for me, I’ll beat my chest and say I am the only person in that constituency that have won without rigging” Okolie stated.

Okolie expressed dissatisfaction with the judgment and noted that time was getting closer when Nigerians would resort to native shrines to seek for justice because people no longer believed in the Judiciary.

Okolie explained that he defected from the People's Democratic Party (PDP) to the Labour Party (LP) to find opportunity in assisting people from his constituency to boost their standard of living.

“I have a lot of friends in the PDP; my aim in joining politics is not to become a member of the PDP but to help my community.

“So if I see any opening to help my community, I willjump into it. I wasn’t born PDP; a lot of people have left the party for other political parties and came back, and they are more like stakeholders in the party than others.

“Those shouting in Asaba, I am more of a stakeholder than them,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party has expressed shock over the judgement by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Delta State, where it sacked the Labour Party’s Ngozi Okolie.

A statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Obiora Ifoh in Abuja, says the issue of nomination of candidates as well as membership are internal affairs of the party beyond the jurisdiction of courts.

Ifohadded thatit was only a political party that could determine who its members were and who their flag bearer was in an election.

“However, it is a notorious principle of law that courts have no right whatsoever to dabble into the internal affairs of political parties so as to choose their candidates for them” or decide the status of their membership,” Ifoh adds.

The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Delta State, declared Ndudi Elumelu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the 2023 House of Representatives election for the constituency.

The tribunal held that Okolie was not duly sponsored by the Labour Party since he was not a member of the party as of May 28, 2022, when the party’s primary was held, and therefore declared the runner-up in the Feb. 25, 2023 National Assembly, Ndudi Elumelu of the PDP, as the winner.