A Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, Imo State, has barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from accepting any candidate presented by the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Imo East Senatorial District ahead of the 2027 National Assembly election.
Justice I. N. Oweibo issued the order in a judgment delivered on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, following a suit filed by five senatorial aspirants who challenged the process through which the NDC selected its candidate for the Owerri Zone senatorial seat.
The ruling has placed the candidacy of former Secretary to the Imo State Government and former House of Representatives member, Uche Onyeaguocha, in legal jeopardy, after the NDC submitted his name to INEC as its candidate for Imo East.
INEC had subsequently published Onyeaguocha’s name among candidates for the January 16, 2027 National Assembly election.
The five plaintiffs were among the aspirants who obtained the NDC’s expression of interest forms and underwent screening ahead of the party’s candidate-selection exercise.
They argued that despite participating in the preliminary processes and allegedly paying N20 million each as a development fee, the party failed to conduct a valid primary election to determine its candidate for the senatorial district.
In his judgment, Justice Oweibo held that the NDC did not conduct a primary election for Imo East in accordance with the required process.
Consequently, the court ordered INEC not to accept a candidate presented by the NDC for the senatorial district on the basis of the disputed process.
The judgment represents a fresh legal hurdle for the NDC less than four months before the National Assembly election and raises questions over the status of the party’s already published candidate for the senatorial district.
Onyeaguocha, a lawyer and former federal lawmaker, represented Owerri Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007.
He subsequently served as Secretary to the Imo State Government during the administration of former Governor Emeka Ihedioha.
The former lawmaker also contested the Imo East senatorial election in 2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but lost to Ezenwa Onyewuchi, who contested on the platform of the Labour Party.
The latest legal dispute arose from the NDC’s process of selecting its candidate for the same senatorial district ahead of the 2027 election.
