Delta North: Court Asked To Declare Seat Vacant, Order Bye-election

The Federal High Court in Abuja, has been called upon to declare the Delta North Senatorial seat vacant, after the defection of Senator Ned Nwoko to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

In a suit marked FCH/ABJ/CS/325/2025, the court was also asked to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a bye-election in the Delta North Senatorial District within 60 days of the judgement in the matter.

Senator Nwoko’s constituent and member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Marvis Ossai, approached the court to seek the order.

Also joined as defendants in the suit are the INEC, PDP and the Senate.

The plaintiff, through his Counsel,  Mr. Johnmary Jideobi, asked 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 who defected to the All Progressives Congress [APC] from the People’s Democratic Party [on which platform he was elected Member of the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and where there was no faction as at time of his defection] ought not to have his seat in the Senate declared vacant by this Honourable Court?”

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Upon the determination of the question by the court, he prayed among other reliefs, for: “An order of this Honourable Court, directing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC– the 2nd Defendant – to conduct a bye-election into the Delta North Senatorial District of the Nigerian Senate within sixty (60) days from the date of the delivery of Judgment herein.

“An order of this Honourable Court declaring vacant the seat of Ned Munir Nwoko and cancelling his Certificate of Return issued to him by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“An order of this Honourable Court mandating the 1st Defendant, Nwoko, 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 judgment in this matter.

“An order disqualifying the 1st Defendant from standing election into any elective post under the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria until and unless he complies with every terms of the judgment in this suit.”

As well as, “An order mandating the 4th Defendant (Senate) to immediately give effect to the judgment of this Honourable Court.”

In a five-paragraph affidavit deposed to 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 Delta North Senatorial District, Nwoko’s continued stay in office after his defection, would amount to a gross violation of the Constitution.

“That since when the 1st Defendant decamped from the PDP up to the present moment of initiating the instant suit, there is never any division in the national Leadership of the People’s Democratic Party [PDP].

“That the ideology of the 1st Defendant’s new party, All Progressives Congress (APC), to which the  1st Defendant now fully subscribes, does not bear any similarity or represent the political philosophy of the People’s Democratic Party [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 Defendant in defecting from the People’s Democratic Party to All Progressives Congress has dealt a major blow to the fortunes of the Plaintiff’s Party, the People’s Democratic Party.

“That the conduct of the 1st Defendant being challenged herein if not condemned and upturned by this Honourable Court will continue to encourage political harlotry, legislative rascality and destroys 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 does no longer represent 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 the Defendant is now representing adverse interests of the people who fought the Plaintiff’s party tooth and nail [in the year 2023] to forestall the emergence of the 1st Defendant as the Member Representing DELTA NORTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT Federal Constituency on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP).

“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 reads.