Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 1 for hearing in a suit challenging the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial primary election in Delta South Senatorial District.
Justice Umar adjourned the matter to the date for hearing shortly after the case, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1094/2026, was mentioned on Thursday.
While Prince Michael Diden is the plaintiff in the suit dated and filed May 30, Senator Joel Onowakpo Thomas, the APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respondents, respectively.
By the suit, Michael Diden is asking the court to declare him the winner of the May 18 direct primary election for the selection of the APC’s candidate for the 2027 senatorial election in the district, on the grounds that he scored the highest votes cast at the poll.
In the Writ of Summons filed on his behalf by his team of lawyers led by Mr. Bankole Joel Akomolafe, SAN, the plaintiff accused the 1st defendant of manipulating and announcing forged and fake results.
Michael Diden, in the statement of claim, stated that the National Working Committee of the APC, which organised the aforesaid primary election, announced the established procedures for the announcement of the result of the said election; that the collation and announcement of results would be conducted exclusively during an official briefing in Abuja after the submission of all results.
He averred that, contrary to the instructions, the 1st defendant immediately ran to various media outlets to pronounce himself the winner of the APC direct primary election for Delta South Senatorial District, Delta State, held on Monday, May 18, 2026, thereby allegedly misleading the public and particularly members of the senatorial district.
“The 1st Defendant connived and colluded with his cohorts to write forged results where he falsely declared himself the winner of the election. He did not only publish the forged results of the eight Local Government Areas under Delta South Senatorial District, Delta State, in various media outlets, he also recorded his cohorts publicly declaring the false result in a video that has gone viral to mislead the people, contrary to what actually transpired on the day of the election, where the plaintiff defeated the 1st Defendant with a wide margin,” he claimed.
The plaintiff further averred that the 1st defendant made the aforesaid representations fraudulently in that he knew they were false or was reckless, not caring whether they were true or false, notwithstanding the monitoring of the election by officials of the 3rd defendant.
“Contrary to the declaration of the false results announced by the 1st Defendant in the viral video pleaded in the suit, the Plaintiff, through his agents in all the wards of the eight Local Government Areas within Delta South Senatorial District, Delta State, has the authentic results of each ward intact, in which the Plaintiff defeated the 1st Defendant with a wide margin, scoring 96,893 votes as against the 1st Defendant’s 31,918 votes.”
The plaintiff added that, sequel to the unequivocal and overwhelming victory he won at the poll, the “leaders, stakeholders, elders, women, youths and registered members of the APC in the senatorial district wrote a formal petition to the party’s national headquarters to denounce and reject the fraudulent declaration of the 1st Defendant as the winner of the election.”
He added that his lawyers had written a similar complaint about “the desperate manipulation and the announcement of fake results of the Monday, May 18, 2026 election by the 1st Defendant” to the National Chairman of the 2nd defendant.
“The Plaintiff avers that the 1st Defendant, by his actions, has not only embarrassed all the contestants in the election but has also cast aspersions on the entire election process and asks this Honourable Court to grant the reliefs sought by the Plaintiff and put the record straight for all observers.”
Among the reliefs he is seeking from the court is a declaration that, being the aspirant who scored the highest number of valid votes cast at the APC primary election for Delta South Senatorial District, Delta State, held on Monday, May 18, 2026, and having satisfied the requirements of the Constitution, Electoral Act 2026, and the APC’s Direct Primaries Guidelines and Procedures, he be declared the winner and recognised as the APC candidate for the 2027 general election in Delta South Senatorial District.
He is also seeking an order directing the APC to immediately forward his name to INEC as the party’s candidate for Delta South Senatorial District in the 2027 general election.
Diden is further praying for an order directing INEC to accept and/or receive his name from the APC as the party’s candidate in the 2027 senatorial election in Delta South Senatorial District.