Jubilation in Edo State As Tribunal Affirms Okpebholo’s Victory As Governor

The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has affirmed the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the 21 September 2024 governorship poll

The tribunal’s three-member panel affirmed the election’s validity on Wednesday in Abuja. The petition filed by Asue Ighodalo and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was dismissed by the tribunal.

Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, who delivered the judgment on Wednesday, held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of over-voting and also failed to call relevant witnesses.

Justice Kpochi further stated that the Oghodalo and the PDP dumped the document on the tribunal without any clarification.

The tribunal stated that the two petitioners were legally required to provide the voter’s register, BVAS and EC8A, but they did not, thereby failing to demonstrate over-voting.

Because no eyewitnesses were called to testify on the claimed over-voting and other issues, the panel’s chairman likewise declared that the claims were unlikely.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Okpebholo of the APC winner of the governor election. With a majority of 291, 667 votes, Okpebholo defeated Ighodalo of the PDP, his close rival, who received 247, 655 votes.

Dissatisfied with the announcement, the PDP and Ighodalo filed a petition against INEC, requesting that Okpebholo’s victory be declared invalid due to anomalies and noncompliance with electoral regulations.

Alleged over-voting and incorrect result computation during result collation were cited as the grounds for the petitioners’ arguments.

Through their lawyer, Mr. Ken Mozia, SAN, the two petitioners (Ighodalo and PDP) asserted that they had successfully proven electoral malpractices in 765 of the 4,519 polling units in the state. They emphasised that the impact of irregularities, not just the proportion of affected polling places, should be used to determine the petition.

Mozia drew attention to disparities at different levels of collation, claiming that the ward and local government collation centres (EC8B) lowered the values on Form EC8A (polling unit results).