The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has finally confirmed the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the September 21, 2024, Edo State governorship poll.
The tribunal’s three-member panel upheld the election as legitimately conducted on Wednesday in Abuja, while dismissing the petition filed by Asue Ighodalo and the People’s Democratic Party.
The tribunal’s chairman, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, delivered the historic ruling on Wednesday night.
Among other things, the tribunal ruled that the petitioners had failed to show over-voting and had not called pertinent witnesses.
Additionally, Justice Kpochi claimed that Ighodalo and the PDP had not spoken to the documents they submitted but had instead dumped them on the tribunal.
To prove over-voting, the tribunal said that the two petitioners are required by law to tender the voter’s register, BVAS and EC8A, which they did not do according to the requirements of the law.
Similarly, the tribunal Chairman held that no eye witnesses were called to testify on alleged over-voting and such making the allegations unbelievable.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had last year declared Okpebholo and APC winners of the governorship election having polled a majority votes 291, 667 to defeat his closet rival, Ighodalo of PDP, who garnered 247, 655 votes.
Not satisfied with the declaration, PDP and Ighodalo had sued the INEC praying for nullification of Okpebholo’s victory on the grounds of irregularities and non-compliance with the electoral laws.
The petitioners anchored their claims on alleged over-voting and wrong computation of results during collation of results.
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Claiming that they have successfully demonstrated electoral malpractices in 765 polling units out of 4,519 across the state, the two petitioners, through their lawyer Mr. Ken Mozia, SAN, emphasised that the petition should be determined by the impact of irregularities, not just the percentage of affected polling units.
Mozia highlighted discrepancies at various collation levels, where figures on Form EC8A (polling unit results) were allegedly reduced at the ward and local government collation stages (EC8B).
