Hon. Ejaife Omizu Odebala has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to declare him the winner of the Nigeria Democratic Congress governorship primary held in Delta State, alleging that the exclusion of results from three local government areas affected the final outcome.

Odebala filed the suit against the NDC, the Independent National Electoral Commission and four other defendants, seeking recognition as the party’s candidate for the 2027 Delta State governorship election.

The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1636/2026 and filed by his legal team led by Fredricks Itula, SAN, is challenging the outcome of the primary conducted on May 29, 2026.

Odebala claimed that he secured the highest number of valid votes when results from all the local government areas were properly accounted for.

According to his affidavit, the primary was conducted in 24 of Delta State’s 25 local government areas, with results collated by returning officers at the local government level.

He alleged, however, that the party did not conduct a final state-level collation or submit a final set of results to INEC on the day of the primary.

Odebala further claimed that certified copies of the local government results and INEC’s monitoring report later showed that results from Ughelli North, Okpe and Isoko North were omitted.

He alleged that the omission reduced his overall tally and prevented him from being declared the winner of the primary.

The plaintiff claimed that a proper collation of the results would give him 15,454 votes, compared with 12,015 votes allegedly recorded by the first defendant.

He is therefore asking the court to declare that the NDC cannot submit the name of any other aspirant to INEC as its candidate for the 2027 Delta governorship election.

Odebala is also seeking an order preventing INEC and the NDC from recognising or acting on any final result other than the results announced by the party’s returning officers at the respective local government areas.

He wants the court to order the NDC to declare him the winner of the primary and recognise him as its candidate for the governorship election.

The plaintiff is further seeking an order restraining the first defendant from presenting himself as the NDC’s governorship candidate in Delta State.

He also wants the court to direct the party and INEC to replace the name of any person already submitted as the party’s candidate with his own.

Among other reliefs, Odebala is asking the NDC to issue him the nomination and expression-of-interest forms, as well as Form EC9, and upload the required documents and information to the INEC portal.

The plaintiff argued through his lawyer that recognising another person as the NDC candidate would cause him substantial prejudice, given his claim that he obtained the highest number of votes in the primary.

The respondents named in the suit are Chris Iyavwoye, NDC, INEC, Alice Ogba, Hon. Francis Atanomeyovwi and Ogbo Johnson.

The case is scheduled to continue before Justice Obiora Egwuatu on September 7, 2026.