{"id":99522,"date":"2026-07-02T11:20:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T11:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=99522"},"modified":"2026-07-02T11:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T11:20:50","slug":"suit-against-apc-inec-senator-onowakpo-over-disputed-delta-south-senatorial-ticket-set-for-definite-hearing-july-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=99522","title":{"rendered":"Suit Against APC, INEC, Senator Onowakpo Over Disputed Delta South Senatorial Ticket Set for Definite Hearing July 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yemi Oyeyemi<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 6 for the definite hearing of a suit seeking to determine the authentic winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election for the Delta South Senatorial District ahead of the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n

The suit was instituted by former Chairman of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Prince Michael Diden, who is challenging the declaration of Senator Joel Onowakpo as the winner of the party’s May 18, 2026 direct primary election.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s proceedings, counsel to the plaintiff, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Bankole Joel Akomolafe, informed the court that the matter had been scheduled for hearing and that his client was ready to proceed.<\/p>\n

However, Akomolafe told the court that counsel to the first defendant, Barrister Habeeb Lawal, had only recently served him with Senator Onowakpo’s statement of defence, necessitating about two days to file a reply.<\/p>\n

The senior lawyer further drew the court’s attention to the fact that although the defence was filed on June 24, it was not served on him until shortly before the hearing, contrary to the requirement for prompt service of court processes.<\/p>\n

Presiding Judge, Justice Mohammed Garba Umar, urged counsel to agree to a short adjournment to ensure that all parties were adequately prepared and to avoid procedural obstacles that could delay the hearing.<\/p>\n

Following the agreement of all counsel, Justice Umar adjourned the matter to July 6, 2026, for definite hearing. He directed that all outstanding court processes be filed and exchanged before the adjourned date and further ordered that fresh hearing notices be served on all parties to forestall any excuses for non-appearance in the suit marked FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/1094\/2026.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s proceedings, Senior Advocate of Nigeria Lukman Fagbemi appeared for the APC, while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), though served with hearing notice, was not represented in court.<\/p>\n

Prince Michael Diden is the plaintiff in the suit filed on May 30, 2026. Senator Joel Onowakpo, the APC and INEC are listed as the first, second and third defendants respectively.<\/p>\n

In the suit, Diden is asking the court to declare him the winner of the APC’s May 18 direct primary election, contending that he scored the highest number of valid votes cast and ought to be recognised as the party’s candidate for the Delta South Senatorial District in the 2027 general election.<\/p>\n

According to the writ of summons filed on his behalf by a legal team led by Akomolafe, SAN, the plaintiff alleged that Senator Onowakpo manipulated the outcome of the primary election by announcing what he described as forged and fabricated results.<\/p>\n

Diden stated that the APC National Working Committee, which conducted the primary election, had directed that collation and announcement of results would take place exclusively at an official briefing in Abuja after the submission of results from across the district.<\/p>\n

He alleged that contrary to those guidelines, Senator Onowakpo prematurely declared himself the winner through various media platforms, thereby misleading party members and the public.<\/p>\n

The plaintiff further alleged that the first defendant, in collaboration with others, produced forged results covering the eight local government areas in Delta South Senatorial District and publicised them, including through a viral video purportedly announcing his victory.<\/p>\n

Diden maintained that the authentic ward-by-ward results in the possession of his agents showed that he won the election with 96,893 votes, while Senator Onowakpo scored 31,918 votes.<\/p>\n

He also claimed that following the disputed declaration, party leaders, stakeholders, elders, women, youths and registered APC members from the senatorial district petitioned the party’s national headquarters, rejecting what they described as the fraudulent declaration of Senator Onowakpo as the winner.<\/p>\n

The plaintiff further stated that his legal representatives also petitioned the APC National Chairman, alleging manipulation of the primary election results.<\/p>\n

According to Diden, unless the court intervenes, the actions complained of would undermine the integrity of the APC primary election process.<\/p>\n

Among the reliefs sought, the plaintiff is asking the court to declare him the valid winner of the APC primary election for Delta South Senatorial District, having allegedly secured the highest number of lawful votes and satisfied the constitutional, statutory and party requirements for nomination.<\/p>\n

He is also seeking an order directing the APC to forward his name to INEC as the party’s candidate for the 2027 senatorial election in Delta South Senatorial District, as well as an order compelling INEC to accept and recognise his nomination upon submission by the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yemi Oyeyemi The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 6 for the definite hearing of a suit seeking to determine the authentic winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election for the Delta South Senatorial District ahead of the 2027 general elections. The suit was instituted by former Chairman of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":91391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[352,8481,142],"class_list":["post-99522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","tag-court","tag-onowakpo","tag-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99523,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99522\/revisions\/99523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}