SIR: On Monday, August 28, the Court of Appeal sitting in Asaba, Delta State, heard the appeal filed by Honourable Ngozi Okolie against the decision of the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal (NAEPT) that declared Ndudi Elumelu winner of the February 25 National Assembly Election for the Oshimili/Aniocha Federal Constituency.

It would be recalled that on July 24, while removing Okolie of the Labour Party, who won the election by a landslide, the three-man panel of Tribunal judges led by Justice A. Z. Mussa declared Elumelu who came a distant second winner of the said election.

Curiously, Elumelu’s petition at the Tribunal succeeded not because the election umpired by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was conducted in substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines. Neither did it succeed because INEC declared Okolie winner without him scoring the majority of lawful votes cast. Rather, the petition succeeded at the Tribunal on the ground that the Labour Party nomination of Okolie as its candidate for the said election was faulty as alleged by Elumelu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in his petition.

The Tribunal also found in favour of the petitioner despite the robust showcase of evidence led by Okolie and his witnesses to the effect that indeed he was educationally qualified to contest the election. It was, therefore, natural that Okolie would challenge same on appeal. In his Notice of Appeal dated July 27, 2023 and heard on August 24 at the Court of Appeal in Asaba, Okolie formulated 12 grounds of Appeal in respect of facts and law wherein he prayed the Court to advert its mind to the Record of Appeal in making its own assessment.

He also urged the court to grant the following orders namely, an order allowing his appeal against the Tribunal judgment in Petition No: EPT/DL/HR/06/2023; an order setting aside the said Tribunal judgment; and also an order entering judgment in favour of the Appellant (Okolie) by dismissing Elumelu’s petition.

From the records, the trial Tribunal apparently found for the petitioner without taking oral evidence in respect of certain documents tendered by two petitioner’s witnesses, a fact that Okolie in his appeal, contends that it’s against established procedural and substantive law principles. Out of the 22 witnesses listed by Elumelu as his, the two who testified did not lead any oral evidence in respect of the grounds of the petition.

As the court sits in its appellate jurisdiction to review the facts and law in respect of Okolie’s appeal, watchers expect the court to deliver sound judgment to prove the judiciary as the last hope of the common man.
Stephen Ubimago, a legal practitioner, wrote from Lagos.