On Saturday, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate for governor of Edo State in 2024, and his party presented more supporting documentation before the Election Petition Tribunal in Benin.
Remember how Ighodalo and the PDP, who are challenging the way the poll was conducted, filed their case in court on Friday by submitting more than 1,000 documents? Despite objections from the respondents’ counsel (INEC, Governor Monday Okpebholo, and All Progressives Congress), the tribunal provisionally acknowledged all of the papers used in Friday’s sessions as evidence and marked them as exhibits. At the address stage, the respondents’ attorneys withheld their justifications for their objections to the papers’ inclusion.
At the closure of proceedings on Friday, the Tribunal, headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, adjourned sitting to Saturday, January 18, 2025, for continuation of hearing on the petition.
55 certified true copies of the polling unit voter registration used in the election are among the extra documents that counsel for the petitioners, Ken Mozia, SAN, tendered from the bar at the hearing’s resumption on Saturday.
A CTC of 56 accreditation numbers from INEC’s Bimodal Voters Accreditation Systems Machines was also sent by Mozia. Additionally, the attorney submitted 72 certified true copies of the BVAS device’s accreditation figure extracts.
Mozia also submitted 70 certified true copies of INEC’s Polling Units Booklets, which contained Form EC25B, and 75 certified true copies of INEC’s Results Viewing, which contained Form EC8A. Additionally, 125 copies of Form EC8A from IREV and 66 copies of the Polling Units Voters Register (all certified true copies) were tendered.
The counsel again tendered 125 copies of Form EC8A from IREV, directly certified by INEC, 101 copies of Form EC8A, CTC of Edo State BIVAS of Polling Unit by Polling Unit’s report as well as certificate of compliance by INEC.
In further support of the petitioners’ case, Mozia also tendered in court CTC of Certificate of compliance with BVAS machines’ report in respect of the 133 Polling Units earlier tendered as exhibit in the petition.
He said, “My Lords, we wish to tender CTC of Copy of serial numbers BIVAS machines’ deployed to 133 Polling Units and Certificate of Compliance.”
Chief Ferdinand Orbih, SAN, Offiong Offiong, SAN, and Abdullahi Aliyu, SAN, the attorneys for the three respondents, objected to the documents’ admissibility. However, at the address stage, they reserved their justifications for their objections to the petitioners’ documents’ admissibility.
In particular, counsel for the second and third respondents, Offiong and Orbih, protested and reserved their reasons; however, counsel for the first respondent (INEC), Aliyu, did not object to the inclusion of the certificate of compliance with the BIVAS devices used in 133 polling units.
Ighodalo and the PDP went to the tribunal to contest INEC’s announcement that Okpebholo had won the guber election on September 21, 2024. Ighodalo is pleading with the court to declare him the election’s victor, arguing that he received the most legitimate votes during the process.
Hearing on the petition continues on Monday, January 20, 2025.
