Delta Central aspirant Edafe Onyeneyen is asking the Federal High Court to invalidate Ovie Omo-Agege’s 2027 Senate nomination. The dispute raises questions about party waivers, membership records and compliance with electoral rules.
Ughelli, Delta — The fight over Ovie Omo-Agege’s 2027 Delta Central Senate ticket has moved beyond an internal party disagreement. It now raises a more fundamental question about political power: can a party make an exception for a high-profile entrant after its nomination deadlines have passed, even when other aspirants have been expected to follow the rules?
Chief Edafe Henry Onyeneyen, a senatorial aspirant on the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has approached the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to overturn the nomination of the former Deputy Senate President for the Delta Central Senatorial District election.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1851/2026, names the NDC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Omo-Agege as defendants. Onyeneyen is asking the court to declare the nomination unlawful and set aside INEC’s publication of Omo-Agege as the party’s candidate.
The allegations have not been established by a court. The central issue is whether the party’s decision to accommodate Omo-Agege complied with its own constitution, nomination guidelines and the Electoral Act 2026.
The Timeline Behind the Dispute
According to the affidavit supporting the suit, the NDC published its guidelines and timetable for the 2027 election primaries on 12 May 2026.
Onyeneyen’s personal assistant, Godwin Oghenero Erheriene, stated that his principal purchased an expression of interest form on 16 May, one day before the deadline stipulated by the party.
The affidavit maintains that Onyeneyen complied with the applicable requirements, stating that he “complied with every requirement” for participation in the primary.
The NDC held its Delta Central senatorial primary on 29 May, according to the filing described in the report.
The applicant alleges that Omo-Agege joined the NDC on 28 May, barely a day before the primary, after the deadlines for obtaining nomination forms, pre-qualification interviews, screening and appeals had passed.
The affidavit further alleges that Omo-Agege had remained an All Progressives Congress (APC) member and participated in the party’s senatorial primary before moving to the NDC.
Contemporaneous reports confirm that Omo-Agege announced his defection to the NDC on 28 May, after losing the APC’s Delta Central senatorial primary to incumbent Senator Ede Dafinone.
That sequence of events is central to the legal challenge. Onyeneyen argues that the party could not lawfully admit a new aspirant into a nomination process after closing the relevant stages to other contestants.
The Waiver That Could Decide the Case
The dispute is not simply about whether the NDC granted Omo-Agege a waiver. The party was publicly reported to have approved waivers for Omo-Agege and former Delta State House of Assembly Speaker Victor Ochei to contest senatorial seats following their defections.
The more difficult question is what those waivers legally covered.
In his supporting affidavit, Erheriene argues that the party’s constitution recognises a waiver relating to the minimum six-month membership requirement but does not empower party organs to extend the deadline for purchasing expression of interest forms.
The affidavit states: “I know as a fact that there is no provision in the constitution authorizing a waiver of the deadline for purchasing expression of interest forms.”
It also argues that the party’s constitution does not authorise any organ to admit an aspirant into the nomination process after the prescribed deadline.
If the relevant rules draw a distinction between the length of time a person must belong to a party and the deadlines for obtaining nomination documents, the existence of a membership waiver would not, by itself, settle the dispute.
The court would need to examine the NDC constitution, the precise terms of the waiver, the published timetable and any applicable provisions of the Electoral Act.
The question is whether the waiver addressed a permitted exception or was used to create an exception that the party’s rules did not allow.
Electoral Act Raises a Second Question
The published allegations also raise a separate issue concerning the statutory register of party members.
Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act 2026 requires political parties to make their membership registers available to INEC no later than 21 days before a primary, congress or convention. Under Section 77(5), only members whose names appear on the submitted register are eligible to vote or be voted for at party primaries.
If the alleged dates are accurate, Omo-Agege became an NDC member on 28 May, while the Delta Central primary took place on 29 May. The statutory deadline for submitting the membership register for that primary would have fallen on 8 May.
That timeline raises an important question: was Omo-Agege’s name on the membership register submitted to INEC before the statutory deadline?
The actual register and any relevant membership records would be critical evidence. Their contents have not been established in the material available for this report, so it would be premature to conclude that the statutory requirement was breached.
The Electoral Act also provides that direct primaries must be conducted in accordance with the guidelines of each political party.
Section 88(2) permits an aspirant who alleges that the Act or party guidelines were not followed in selecting or nominating a candidate to apply to the Federal High Court for redress.
Section 88(3) addresses the consequence where a court finds that a political party failed to comply with the Act in conducting its primaries: the candidate for the position in question is not to be included in the election.
The court will have to determine how these provisions apply to the facts and claims before it. INEC’s publication of a candidate’s particulars is not a substitute for judicial determination of a properly established challenge to the nomination process.
A Complaint the Aspirant Says Was Ignored
Onyeneyen also alleges that the NDC failed to address his formal complaint about the conduct of the primary.
According to the affidavit, he wrote to the party’s national chairman requesting an immediate halt to the ratification, certification or submission of the disputed results.
The petition was titled “Petition Against The Conduct Of The Delta Central Senatorial Primary Election And Request For Immediate Stay Of Ratification, Certification Or Submission Of Disputed Results.”
The applicant alleges that the party ignored his concerns and did not establish an alternative dispute resolution committee to address complaints from aspirants.
He argues that the NDC constitution binds the party, its organs and every aspirant seeking nomination under its platform. He also maintains that candidates are entitled to equal treatment under the party’s constitution and guidelines.
These allegations place the party’s handling of internal complaints under scrutiny alongside the waiver itself. The existence of a dispute does not automatically invalidate a primary, but the rules governing nomination and the mechanisms for resolving objections can become central when a contestant alleges unequal treatment.
What Omo-Agege and the NDC Said Before the Lawsuit
When Omo-Agege announced his move to the NDC in May, he described the party as a platform through which he could pursue his political ambitions.
He said: “Deltans want leadership that listens first, acts with integrity, and delivers results that can be seen and felt in daily life.”
The NDC, in announcing the waivers for Omo-Agege and Ochei, cited their political experience, leadership capacity and commitment to democratic ideals. It described its platform as “credible, inclusive, and people-oriented”.
Those public statements preceded the present legal challenge; they do not amount to a response to the allegations in the lawsuit.
No response to the lawsuit from the NDC, INEC or Omo-Agege is included in the report of the filing reviewed for this article. The defendants’ positions on the specific allegations therefore remain unestablished in the available material.
The Evidence That Matters Now
Onyeneyen is asking the court to determine whether the NDC’s power to waive its minimum membership requirement extends to deadlines for obtaining nomination forms and completing other stages of the nomination process.
He also wants the court to declare Omo-Agege’s nomination unlawful and invalidate INEC’s publication of his particulars as the NDC candidate for Delta Central.
The case will turn on more than competing assertions about fairness. The party’s constitution, its published guidelines, the written waiver, the records of screening and appeals, the membership register submitted to INEC, and the nomination documents could all help establish whether the process complied with the applicable rules.
There is also a date discrepancy that requires clarification. The affidavit, as reported, refers to an APC primary on 20 May, while contemporaneous reporting by PUNCH placed the Delta Central APC senatorial primary on 18 May. The underlying records should be checked before the dates are treated as conclusively established.
The 2027 National Assembly election is scheduled for 16 January 2027 under INEC’s revised timetable, leaving the nomination dispute with significant consequences for the party and the aspirants involved.
The decisive issue is whether the rules advertised to every NDC aspirant were applied consistently, or whether the party granted an exception that its constitution and the law did not permit. The court’s assessment of the documents and applicable provisions, rather than the political stature of any contestant, will determine the outcome.
Follow us on our broadcast channels today!
- WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VawZ8TbDDmFT1a1Syg46
- Telegram: https://t.me/atlanticpostchannel
- Facebook: https://www.messenger.com/channel/atlanticpostng
Join the debate; let’s know your opinion.