By John Azu
Twenty aggrieved members of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Imo State have filed a direct criminal complaint before a Chief Magistrate Court in Abuja against two party chieftains, Babatunde Alli and Teddy Obey, over allegations of forgery and electoral malpractice.
The complaint, assigned to Court 5 and expected to come up on Monday, seeks an order compelling the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to immediately arrest, investigate, and prosecute the defendants.
The complainants, who are members of the party from Imo East Senatorial District, accused the party officials of issuing a false nomination list despite collecting payments for expression of interest forms from aspirants.
According to the complainants, the party’s electoral committee misled them regarding the conduct of primary elections, which they claim never took place, before allegedly releasing a fabricated result on June 17 containing names of candidates purportedly elected across various state and federal constituencies.
The complainants include Uche Nwole, Okere Kingdom Nnamdi, Chigbu Uzoma, Oshieze Vincent Ehirim, Hector Nnadi, Uche Asoluka, Odaghara Chijioke, Sixtus Nnamdi Obasi, Peter Ogbede, Ikesinachi Onwuaka, Mike Nwachukwu, Kelechi Luke Anyanwu, Opara Donald Mba, Emeka James Onyema, Uche Ugo, Nkwocha Kennedy, Possible Mjemeru, Okeke Maxwell, Ogu Ugonna and Chidi Cally Egwe.
In the complaint marked CR/1422/644/2026, the aggrieved members stated that they paid N3 million for Senate expression of interest forms, N2 million for House of Representatives forms, and N1 million for State House of Assembly forms, in line with the NDC Guidelines for the 2027 General Election. The guidelines were reportedly signed by the party’s National Chairman, Senator Cleopas Moses Zuwoghe, and National Secretary, Ikenna Morgan Enekweizu, between May 13 and May 17.
They further alleged that Uche Nwole made additional payments totalling N25 million in five instalments to Alli as a levy and contribution toward the growth of the party through transfers made to Fidelity Bank and Globus Bank accounts.
The complainants said they participated in the party’s screening exercise on May 19 as required by the guidelines but were later disappointed by the process.
According to them, the party failed to comply with provisions contained in paragraphs 1(c) and (d) of its guidelines, which required the announcement of screening results and the issuance of nomination forms to qualified aspirants. Instead, they said they were directed to proceed to their constituencies for primaries scheduled for May 28.
The complainants further alleged that on May 28, at about 4:30 p.m., Alli, who chaired the electoral committee deployed to Imo State, initially urged aspirants to agree on consensus candidates before later issuing a circular postponing the primaries to May 29.
However, they claimed the primary elections were never conducted due to what they described as the hijacking of electoral committee officials.
The complaint reads:
“Regretably, on the Wednesday 17th June, 2026, the complainants saw a publication of fake results circulating on NDC WhatsApp platforms qherein Mr Babatunde F. Alli forged results of primary elections that never held in various state/federal constituencies and in Imo East senatorial district of Imo State.
“The said criminally forged result contains figures of votes purportedly scored by candidates from a primary election that never held anywhere in Imo State and this amounts to forgery, criminal breach of trust, corrupt inducement to return a candidate as winner of a primary election that never held.”
The complainants argued that the alleged actions constitute violations of Sections 118(c), 119(1)(a) and (c), and 124(3) of the Electoral Act 2026.
As of the time of filing this report, no date had been fixed for the hearing of the matter.