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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A Federal High Court, Abuja has struck out a suit filed by Senator Ned Munir Nwoko challenging former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s emergence as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Delta North Senatorial District.
Justice Mohammed Umar dismissed the suit marked FCT/ABJ/CS/1062/2026 on Monday, ruling it was fundamentally defective from the outset because Nwoko had filed it through a purported attorney, Dr. Mike Nwoko, rather than personally.
The judge upheld arguments by defence lawyers, including Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN, representing the APC, that the suit could not be amended as Nwoko had requested.
Nwoko had sought to amend the originating processes to show he filed the pre-election suit personally rather than through an attorney, a move the APC, Okowa, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) all listed as defendants opposed.
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Justice Umar found that the originating summons showed the case was instituted in a representative capacity, in violation of Section 285(14) of the Constitution and Section 88(2) of the Electoral Act 2026, which he said clearly restrict the right to file pre-election suits to aspirants who participated in the relevant party primary.
The judge held that this right is a personal statutory entitlement belonging exclusively to the aggrieved aspirant, not a transferable civil right that can be exercised through an agent or power of attorney.
He noted that neither the Constitution nor the Electoral Act contains any provision extending this right to an attorney or representative, and said lawmakers would have said so explicitly had they intended otherwise.
Justice Umar ruled that a valid, subsisting suit must exist before a court can exercise discretion to permit amendments, adding that a void originating process cannot be retroactively validated through amendment.
He dismissed Nwoko’s application to amend the originating summons and struck out the substantive suit for want of jurisdiction.
