Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a pre-election suit filed by Senator Ned Munir Nwoko challenging the emergence of former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as the All Progressives Congress candidate for the Delta North Senatorial District. Justice Mohammed Umar delivered the ruling on Monday, July 20, 2026, holding that the case was fundamentally defective from its inception because Nwoko had commenced the action through a purported attorney rather than personally, in violation of the clear provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2026.
The suit, marked FCT/ABJ/CS/1062/2026, listed the APC, Okowa, and the Independent National Electoral Commission as defendants. Nwoko had instituted the action in his name but through Dr. Mike Nwoko, who was described in the originating processes as his lawful attorney. At a point during the proceedings, Nwoko applied to amend the originating processes to reflect that the pre-election suit had been personally filed by him rather than through an attorney. However, the defendants opposed the application, arguing that the suit was incompetent from the moment it was filed and could not be revived through an amendment. Counsel for the APC, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was among the lawyers who urged the court to reject the application.
In his ruling, Justice Umar examined the originating summons and found that the action had indeed been instituted by Nwoko through his purported attorney. The judge held that the form and content of the documents showed that the suit was filed in a representative capacity, which contravened the clear provisions of the law. Relying on Section 285(14) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 88(2) of the Electoral Act, 2026, Justice Umar stated that the provisions were "clear, explicit and unambiguous in vesting the right to institute a pre-election action in an aspirant who participated in the relevant party primary." The judge ruled that the right to challenge the conduct, outcome, or validity of a political party's primary election belonged exclusively to the affected aspirant and was a personal statutory right, not an ordinary civil claim that could be transferred, assigned, or exercised through an agent or attorney.
Justice Umar further held that if the Constitution or the Electoral Act had intended to permit an aspirant to institute a pre-election suit through an attorney or representative, the laws would have expressly provided for it. He noted that neither Section 285(14) of the Constitution nor Section 88(2) of the Electoral Act extended the right to an aspirant's agent, attorney, or representative. The judge also rejected Nwoko's application to amend the originating summons, ruling that an amendment could not revive a suit that was incurably defective from the date it was filed. He held that no amendment could "breathe life" into an originating process that was already a nullity, and that there must first be a competent and subsisting case before a court could exercise its discretion to permit an amendment.
Justice Umar consequently dismissed Nwoko's application for leave to amend the originating summons and struck out the substantive suit for want of jurisdiction, ruling that the process through which it was commenced was incompetent. With the ruling, Okowa, who served as Governor of Delta State from 2015 to 2023, remains the APC candidate for the Delta North Senatorial seat in the forthcoming general election. Senator Nwoko has yet to publicly react to the ruling. The judgment reaffirms the principle that pre-election disputes must be initiated personally by the aggrieved aspirant, and that such rights cannot be delegated to an attorney or exercised through a power of attorney.
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