The 2024 Edo Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal has postponed until January 13, 2025, to begin hearing the petition filed by PDP candidate Dr. Asue Ighodalo against the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Okpebholo as the winner of the poll.
According to INEC, Okpebholo received 291,667 votes to defeat PDP candidate Ighodalo, who received 247,274 votes.
The tribunal’s chairman, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, read the adopted pre-hearing report yesterday, stating that the parties had agreed to call 290 witnesses.
According to him, the report detailed the schedule for witness examination, which included 40 minutes for each star witness’s examination-in-chief, 30 minutes for the petitioners’ cross-examination, and 20 minutes for each respondent’s cross-examination.
The parties also agreed to provide each star witness ten minutes for re-examination and other regular witnesses twenty-five minutes for examination-in-chief. Respondents will each have ten days to summon their witnesses, while petitioners must do so in no more than twenty-one days.
The report stated that, with the exception of Sundays and other legally designated public holidays, the tribunal would meet every day at 10 a.m.
According to Justice Kpochi, since there was no application about the petition and no amendments will be considered, it cannot be combined with any other petition. According to the chairman, the parties decided to summon only those witnesses whose oaths had been frontloaded; however, they might call subpoenaed witnesses if needed.
Some witnesses will be able to translate from English to any native language, such as dialects of Auchi, Esan, or Benin, and vice versa, he said. The tribunal scheduled the start of the petition hearing for January 13, 2025, after delivering its pre-hearing report largely in accordance with the counsel’s harmonized suggestion.
