The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate for governor, Mr. Asue Ighodalo, submitted a plea, which the Edo Governorship Election Tribunal rejected on Wednesday.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr. Asue Ighodalo, their candidate for governor, filed a case contesting the results of the governorship election held on September 21.
The claim was denied by the Edo Governorship Election case tribunal on Wednesday. The tribunal in Abuja confirmed the election of All Progressives Congress (APC) governor Monday Okpebholo.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Okpebholo as the winner after he received 291,667 votes, more than Ighodalo, who received 247,655 votes. Because the petitioners were unable to provide evidence to support their claim of over-voting, the three-member tribunal rejected their case.
The tribunal also held that the petitioners failed to call competent witnesses to speak to documentary evidence they brought to the tribunal.
Since the justices were unable to demonstrate how the records supported their claims of excessive voting, they claimed that this amounted to the tribunal being dumped with documents.
The petitioners’ claim of overvoting at 320 polling places spread across the state’s 18 LGAs, where elections were held, was unanimously dismissed by the tribunal.
Justice Wilfred Kpochi, the tribunal’s chairman and author of the lead ruling, stated that the petitioners’ failure to call qualified witnesses to support their assertions meant that the allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, could not be proven.
In order to support their allegation of excessive voting, the PDP and Ighodalo called 19 witnesses, including collation agents and a research specialist, and presented polling unit results, collation results, the BVAS, and other private documents.
“Where no evidence is made, it is not the duty of the tribunal to scrutinise the documents for the petitioners,” Kpochi said.
The tribunal further held that to prove allegations of over voting, a petitioner must tender three valid documents which are: Voter’s Register, BVAS and the form EC8A (polling unit result).
“How do you prove over voting if you don’t know the number of the registered voters? the chairman said.”
The tribunal subsequently dismissed the petition which accused the governor and his party of non-compliance with electoral laws, as well as over voting.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), INEC has proclaimed All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Okpebholo the victor of the governorship poll on September 21.
According to the electoral umpire, Okpebholo received the majority of the votes cast in the election, which is how they arrived at their judgment.
Disappointed with INEC’s announcement, the PDP and Ighodalo took the governor and his party to court in an attempt to have the election declared void due to excessive voting and violations of electoral regulations. The PDP and its candidate’s petition is dismissed by the tribunal’s ruling, which essentially confirms Okpebholo’s victory.
The Action Alliance and its candidate, as well as the Accord Party and its candidate, had already had their petitions dismissed by the tribunal due to their frivolity and lack of merit.
