Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 1 for the hearing of a legal challenge to the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial primary election in Delta South Senatorial District. The case, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1094/2026, was mentioned on Thursday, and the court adjourned it to the specified date for full hearing. The plaintiff, Prince Michael Diden, is contesting the results of the May 18, 2026, direct primary election, which he claims he won by a significant margin.
Diden is seeking a declaration from the court that he is the rightful winner of the APC primary election for the 2027 senatorial election in Delta South. He alleges that Senator Joel Onowakpo Thomas, the 1st respondent and declared winner, manipulated the election results and announced forged figures to the public. Diden’s legal team, led by Mr. Bankole Joel Akomolafe, SAN, has accused Thomas of colluding with associates to fabricate results and disseminate them through media outlets and viral videos.
According to the statement of claim, the APC’s National Working Committee had set clear procedures for result collation, requiring all results to be submitted and officially announced during a briefing in Abuja. Diden insists that Thomas violated these procedures by immediately declaring himself the winner on May 18, 2026, before any official collation. He further claims that Thomas’s actions were fraudulent and reckless, misleading the public and party members despite the presence of INEC officials monitoring the election.
Diden asserts that he secured 96,893 votes compared to Thomas’s 31,918 votes across the eight Local Government Areas in Delta South. He claims to have authentic ward-level results to back his victory and that leaders, elders, women, youths, and registered APC members in the district have formally petitioned the party’s national headquarters to reject Thomas’s declaration. His lawyers also wrote to the APC National Chairman to protest the alleged manipulation and false results.
The plaintiff is asking the court to declare him the winner, order the APC to forward his name to INEC as the party’s candidate, and direct INEC to accept his nomination for the 2027 senatorial election. He also seeks to have the record corrected to reflect the true outcome of the primary election. This legal battle could significantly influence the APC’s candidate selection process and public trust in the party’s internal elections as Nigeria prepares for the 2027 general elections.
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