By John Ikani
Minority Leader of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Ndudi Elumelu, has lost his seat to the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Ngozi Okolie.
Okolie emerged as the winner of the fiercely contested election to represent Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency in Delta State, garnering a total of 53,879 votes, while Elumelu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) received 33,456 votes.
Elumelu had been serving as a member of the House of Representatives since his first election in 2007 and was seeking re-election for a fifth term.
However, his defeat came as no surprise, as he had faced intense criticism from his constituents for failing to deliver on his election promises.
In December, during a ward-to-ward campaign, Elumelu was chased away by angry youths from Oko, a community in his constituency, who accused him of making empty promises.
The youths expressed their frustration with the PDP, which had been campaigning in their community since 1999 but failed to deliver on promises of basic social amenities such as roads and electricity.