Mr Ejaife Odebala, a two-term member of the Delta House of Assembly, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to declare him the 2027 governorship candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Delta.
Odebala, who represents Sapele State Constituency, is urging Justice Obiora Egwuatu to compel the party to declare him the winner of its May 29 governorship primary, arguing that he secured the highest number of votes.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1636/2026, Odebala sued Chris Iyavwoye, the NDC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Alice Ogba, Hon. Francis Atanomeyovwi and Ogbo Johnson as the first to sixth defendants respectively.
Through his counsel, Fredricks Itula, SAN, Odebala is seeking a declaration that, having scored the highest number of votes in the primary, the NDC is legally barred from submitting Iyavwoye’s name to INEC as its candidate.
He claimed that he secured the highest number of votes in the May 29 primary, including votes from Ughelli North, Okpe and Isoko North Local Government Areas, which he said were collated and declared by the party’s returning officers.
Odebala is also asking the court to declare that the NDC and INEC cannot recognize or act on any other final result of the primary apart from those collated, announced and declared by the party’s returning officers at the respective local government areas.
He consequently sought an order restraining Iyavwoye from parading himself as the NDC candidate for the 2027 governorship election in Delta.
He further asked the court to order INEC and the NDC to replace the name of any person already submitted as the party’s candidate, including Iyavwoye, with his name.
The former lawmaker also wants the NDC compelled to issue him a nomination form, expression of interest form and Form EC9 as the winner of the May 29 primary.
He equally sought an order directing the party to upload the documents and other required information on INEC’s portal immediately.
In an affidavit filed alongside the suit, Odebala said he was among the aspirants cleared to contest the primary, which he claimed was successfully conducted in 24 of the state’s 25 local government areas.
He said the results were collated at the respective local government areas, but there was “no final collation of results at the state level” and that the NDC did not submit any final collated results to INEC on May 29.
According to him, his agents monitored the exercise at the local government level, and he expected the party to declare him the winner.
Odebala alleged that after obtaining certified true copies of the results collated by the local government returning officers, as well as INEC’s election monitoring report, he discovered that results from Ughelli North, Okpe and Isoko North were excluded.
He claimed that the omission artificially reduced his total votes and denied him victory in the primary.
He further alleged that a proper collation of the results would give him 15,454 votes against Iyavwoye’s 12,015 votes.
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Odebala urged the court to hold that he would be “greatly prejudiced” if INEC recognized Iyavwoye as the NDC governorship candidate.
He therefore prayed the court to exercise its powers in his favour, having allegedly secured the highest number of votes in the primary. Justice Egwuatu fixed Monday for the hearing of the suit.
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